


Between The Lights

by liquidCitrus



Category: Nobilis - Jenna Moran
Genre: American Gods Inspired (Indirectly), Dom/sub Undertones, Duty, F/F, Gods, Language of Flowers, Lightbulbs, Metaphors, Pigeons, Power Imbalance, Semantics Arguments, Social Maneuvering, Swords, Symbolism, The Society of Flowers, Urban Fantasy, Worldbuilding, actual play, blue and orange morality, factionalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 57,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22984375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidCitrus/pseuds/liquidCitrus
Summary: This is an actual-play summary of a Nobilis campaign I ran calledBetween the Lights. Between the Lights was a game about factionalism in Noble high society, dealing with corrupt institutions and amoral individuals, the intrinsic imbalance and fraughtness of the Power-Anchor relationship, and lesbians with swords.
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character
Kudos: 3





	1. Session 0: Kethredamen

**Author's Note:**

> BTL was run as a live text chat game, on the Jenna Moran Fanclub server on Discord (if you want an invitation, please leave a comment over [that-a-ways](https://jennafans.dreamwidth.org/1905.html).) It was previously posted [on Dreamwidth](https://jennafans.dreamwidth.org/tag/between+the+lights); I'm mirroring it here now that it's finished for extra ease of access.

_And I asked her, "Why? Why would you be so cruel?"  
And she told me, "Because it is in my nature."  
I stared blankly at her for a while. Then I threw a shoe at her.  
"Why?" she asked.  
"Because it is in my nature," I replied.  
She was not very amused._

_\- from the Thought-Record of Olive Biskli, Dominus of Wires_

A while ago, people noticed that, while the Jennachat had an example of a game of Chuubo's, and even a few other systems besides, it was lacking an example game of Nobilis. A friend and I had been talking about playing Nobilis for ages, and this seemed like as good a place as any to start. At some point, I blocked out some time on Thursdays and started talking to people. I ended up with three players, a text chat channel, and the agreement that everyone wants to focus on Noble society.

Today was session 0 of a campaign that I am unilaterally deciding is called Between The Lights. (I made a comment referring to the leading members of Noble society as "luminaries" at one point. Also there is a Darklord involved.)

When I started the session, we discussed which Estates we were using, and some details of our Nobles. From Alienation, Metaphors, and Ice Cream, we collectively decided that a Darklord was involved, and then I prodded with a few questions until we had a description of who it was. Chancel-building started from the idea seed of "like those illegal gambling parlors from movies", and spiraled out from there.

Character sheets are not yet finalized, but I will be following up later this week and we should hopefully have sheets ready for session 1.

#### The Imperator

Kethredamen

  * is shaped like a monster out of dreams
  * has a form that is difficult to describe
  * likes misunderstanding what you say



The Dark Magister Kethredamen, sometimes nicknamed “Keith”, is the Imperator of this game's Nobles. It is shaped like a monster that comes from human dreams. You can never quite pin down which monster it is, though. Every time you try to describe its appearance, it wriggles out from underneath your conceptual grasp. Keith amuses itself by misconstruing your statements, possibly maliciously. Perhaps it will tell you that what you just said is, in the land of Melethrim, a solicitation for twelve elephants to be delivered to the inside of your shoes. Or perhaps it will just demonstrate, instead.

#### Locus Kethredamen

Properties of Locus Kethredamen

  * All are welcome here.
  * It is slightly too cold for comfort.
  * You are inside an endless maze.
  * Everything you need is handled by the brass creatures.



To get into the Chancel, you find a generic restaurant front that for some reason never gets much in the way of foot traffic. There is a door marked “do not enter” in the back, which - well, if you enter a door that specifically says not to enter it, you’re most certainly a brave fool, and that’s exactly what a Dark Magister wants of you.

Inside, you are greeted by a blast of air conditioning and a swarm of activity.

The Chancel looks like an illicit gambling parlor, except it goes on forever. There are great opulent dining-halls. There are private rooms where the blackjack dealer will let you bet souls or dreams instead of coin. Belowdecks (as it were), there is an infinite labyrinth with walls made of books. That is where the waitstaff and servants live. The waitstaff and servants are scuttling brass automatons of every shape and size, except (notably) human. Some scuttle along the walls dusting the chandeliers. Some float along, bearing serving-trays atop their heads.

All are welcome here. Ordinary human gamblers are received warmly and given just enough currency for them to gamble their lives away. Nobles from across the Ash mix and mingle here. The Maiden of the Winter Solstice (one of the Ogdoad) frequents the establishment, trading pleasantries and drinks. A few Excrucian shards sometimes show up, and if they behave themselves, they are allowed to stay.

#### The Nobles

Sasha Konstanian, the newly minted Power of Alienation, has inherited the responsibilities of an ancient and powerful Noble that has held high power in the Robber’s Order for millennia. Her previous life as a disinterested 7-11 cashier has not prepared her for any of this.

Lionel Coin, the Power of Ice Cream, was once a corporate spy and now reigns in furs as Emperor. He has embraced the song of the Dark, making destructive habits more attractive to mortals so that they will desire them.

Sonja Aronsdottir, the Duchess of Metaphor, rose out of the pages of a young adult fiction book many years ago, and follows Heaven in direct defiance of her Imperator and all of her Noble siblings. She can incarnate in any book in the world, and possesses the power to turn a metaphor into a literal truth. (This is actually a Lesser Creation of Truth, not a Destruction of Metaphor; destroying something’s membership in one Estate does not let you control which category it will jump into instead. Miraculously destroying a Metaphor could easily turn it into an idiom, or a simile.)


	2. Session 1: Heat

_"It is the right of any Power of the Light to say: I am the Light, or any Power of the Dark to say: I am the Dark, when acting in service of their Code. They are the hands and eyes of the force that moves them, and it is considered humility—not pride—to set that identity above their own."_ _  
_

_\-- from The Society of Flowers, by Heather Williams (canon quote)_

Today's session was an introductory one, with the opening scene being a bit of Noble societal obligation (a member of the Green Snake Order that had joined a penitentiary order for a reason) and also a straightforward Thing To Chase (a Power running amok). (I wasn't sure which one the players would engage with, so I added both angles.) So we had a fun chase scene and _then_ a bit of Noble societal obligation.

I should probably note before we go on that one extra person has joined the group:

Maddie Clarkson, Domina Fog, has a Burger King crown that ensures that it is and will always be her 13th birthday. She can turn into fog and has Secondary Domain over bad weather. And when she wishes on a star, it actually works.

Anyway, here we go:

_She came stumbling through the door into Locus Kethredamen, a flicker of light in the vague shape of a person, and there she collapsed.  
Something lingered at the door, for a moment, watching her, with a peculiar expression on its face.  
...Sadness?  
And then the door closed._

#### The Puddle

_< HG> You are startled out of what you were doing - wait, what were you doing before this, anyway? - by a thunk at the nearest hatch of Locus Kethredamen's pneumatic-tube mail system. Upon examination it yields a copper capsule, with a tightly coiled strip of paper inside. An automated message. A disturbance. The brass bouncers are usually very good at ejecting interlopers, and the general servitors are usually very good at taking care of minor emergencies, but they have identified that this is far above their capabilities and have called you in to explain. You know, the kind of "explain" that involves punching things._

There is a puddle of light on a lovely Persian rug next to one of the Chancel entrances. Sonja discusses a little with the books nearby, and Lionel goes examining the scenery, to figure out what happened. Some discussion later, Sasha mops it up and dumps the lightspill in a Big Gulp cup. There, it reveals itself to be Rhonda Caseworth, Domina Cups. (Rhonda is none too pleased with being dumped in a cup with some dirty mop water, but, being Defeated, is powerless to resist all this.) The Raven in Sasha's head makes it clear that Rhonda is not to be trusted, but nevertheless, Maddie impulsively ducks out to investigate anyway and finds that the entrance leads to a cheap takeout place in Kansas, where the security cameras have been tampered with, and it is unseasonably warm.

Rhonda Caseworth reveals that she is currently doing the business of the Green Snake Order - that Order of Nobles that attempts to redeem Powers whose minds have turned - and was attempting to chase down the Dominus Heat when she was beaten within an inch of her life.

_< HG> [Rhonda:] "The normal global warming is Heat making a deal with Cars to spread influence over decades. That's normal business around these parts. What isn't, is randomly deciding that summer in the middle of winter is a thing now."_

Maddie decides without anyone else's permission to go stop Heat herself, and, after asking a local summer thunderstorm about nearby suspicious activity, takes off running. Everyone else sighs and goes along with the obvious adventure hook. They pile into Sasha's car, which is only functioning at all because it is an Anchor.

_< Sasha> "Yeah hop in whatever. One seat has a belt, one seat has an airbag, pick wisely."_

#### Walmart

Sonja asks a few nearby metaphors where Heat is is going, and directs Sasha on which way to drive. (On the way, Sonja makes the metaphor "hot as horses" real, thus making a horse exist. And then immediately claims it as her own by feeding it a cup of ice from Sasha's 7-11.) They find a figure climbing a radio tower. Sasha alienates the figure from the concept of climbing the radio tower, and it falls onto Maddie's face, because Maddie had been climbing up after it. A Surface Wound and a Persona miracle later, Maddie has a temporary Affliction sticking her to the figure, because fog clings and wraps around things. The group attempts to apprehend it. It doesn't work very well.

_< Sonja> "Messing with the local climate wasn't very ice of you."  
<HG> The thing struggles out of Maddie's grasp just to punch Sonja in the face.  
<HG> Then again, now that it's struggled out of Maddie's grasp, it takes off for a nearby roof._   
_< Maddie> I think my affliction [from the Persona miracle] carries me after them  
<Maddie> Even if they get away, I'm still wrapping them up_   
_< HG> Maddie you're probably a really loud fanny pack now_

Maddie starts biting at it. The figure keeps running, and ditches the leg that Maddie was biting at, throwing Maddie and leg alike away. A quick car chase (with Treasure, making Sasha's car really nimble and capable of crashing through the front of a Walmart without disintegrating) later, they catch up to it smashing the freezer doors. Sonja tries to intervene by turning her trusty roll of twine into a rope to lasso the thing with. Sasha has a better idea.

_< Sasha> "RHONDA"  
<Sasha> "WHEN YOU'RE NOT LIGHT, ARE YOU A CUTE GIRL"  
<HG> "Um............" says the light sloshing around in the cup. "Don't we have bigger problems???"  
<Sasha> "ANSWER THE QUESTION"  
<HG> "...yes?"  
<Sasha> "WORKS FOR ME"  
<Sasha> i spend 1 TMP and take a wound to claim Rhonda as an Anchor_   
_< HG> Your cup has sprouted a leg. Actually, it's sprouted two legs. And two arms. And a head. And then Rhonda is crouched uncomfortably in the middle of the car, foot still stuck in the cupholder, wearing a very large Big Gulp cup as a dress.  
<Sasha> "...I forget what I meant to accomplish with this."_

Freshly undefeated by being Anchored (I'm not sure this is how it works RAW but I figured it would be best to let Sasha use her new Anchor immediately), Rhonda (at the urging of Sasha via a Treasure miracle) traps the figure under a giant upside-down drinking glass.

_< Maddie> Maddie [still being run around by the Persona affliction from earlier] smacks against the glass and sticks to the side like a bug_

Now that the figure is safely contained (for at least one definition of safely, and two definitions of contained), it turns out to be a mannequin, tattooed with "PROPERTY OF HEAT", revealing that this thing is not Dominus Heat, and that actual Dominus Heat is elsewhere. Sonja uses Persona, applying the "communicates hidden truths" property of Metaphors to the mannequin. Tongue now loosened, it tells them that Heat is currently "trying to do something about Canada," and that Heat feels slighted by some recent social event or other. Maddie votes for immediately going off to Canada to pursue this further, but the rest of the group decides to try calling Kethredamen first for advice. Kethredamen wants them to go back to the Chancel first. With an offering.

_< HG> A tentacle comes slithering out of the speaker hole of the phone. Could you please bring the corpse back so it could eat the corpse before it decides? Or at least, and here its eyestalk swivels to the thing imprisoned underneath the cup, what's left of the corpse?_

#### An Accomplice

Back at the chancel, Keith contemplates the mannequin corpse and the now-properly-clothed Rhonda. Why, precisely, Rhonda is in the Green Snake Order is now a topic of discussion.

_< HG> It makes a noise in the general direction of Rhonda, but whether the noise is approving or disapproving is unclear.  
<HG> "Yeah, I know," says Rhonda. "I'm surprised you let me in after everything."  
<HG> What everything?_

They have to extract the confession from Rhonda word by word. Sonja tries to stop them from doing so, because her attempting to be a good young adult protagonist (and thus being forgiving) is clashing with her following Heaven (and thus being judgemental). Sonja's objection is overridden. Rhonda tells them that she betrayed part of Incandescence to the Excrucians.

_< Maddie> "Incandescence? Like, light bulbs?"  
<HG> "The fact that you only think of it as the thing light bulbs do is telling."  
<HG> "We used it for other things, before."_

Now that she's mostly not dead, Rhonda asks if she can leave to continue chasing down Heat. (And also to escape this deeply awkward social situation.)

 _< Sasha> "Are you gonna go chase down Heat so I don't have to?"_  
<HG> "Yes."  
<Sonja> "Will you be more successful next time?" Sonja asks, coldly.  
<HG> "If I am successful, I have given you value. If I am unsuccessful, I will be dead. If I betray you, you haven't lost anything that wasn't already lost before."

Sasha sends Rhonda off, with a Treasure 6 miracle, to go take care of the Heat thing. Maddie picks up on the sexual tension between Sasha and Rhonda, but thinks that it is gross because she is 13.

#### Bonds Instead Of Preparations

_< HG> Kethredamen is back. It seems that the business with Heat is taken care of, at least for the present time. It would also like to remind you that the traditional winter ball held here is coming up soon, so you may as well work on preparing for that.  
<HG> Its definition of soon is tomorrow._

Keith charges the Nobles with preparing for the local traditional winter ball. However, as soon as he leaves, Maddie runs off to go babysit some fog instead of preparing in any useful way, and Sasha begins decorating the 7-11 for the holidays. Sonja attempts to find herself a nice dress, which doesn't go well. See, when you go to Macy's and attempt to pay with 100 dollar bills, they check your ID, and because Sonja is in fact from a popular YA novel, she has a name from a popular YA novel. (Like, imagine if you tried to use an ID with the name "Hermione Granger" on it.) Instead of using miracles to get out of this situation, Sonja gives up and goes home.

Sasha tries to console Sonja. They end up putting tinsel up together. 

#### On The Next Episode...

A winter ball! Familia Kethredamen being really underdressed for the occasion! Other Nobles getting into an argument! And maybe, just maybe, a horse!


	3. Session 2: Ball

_"I threaded my eye through the keyhole. So I could see inside it to pick the lock."  
_ _"Okay, I'll grant you that. But how did you get enough light to see by?"  
_ _"I called in a personal favor."_

_\- Sunstories, by Carol Paresi_

There is, as is usual for Nobilis, a ball. Specifically, it is the traditional winter ball held in Locus Kethredamen. Maddie attempts to hold a spelling bee. Sasha tries to accuse someone of colluding with Heat. Also present are a great number of NPCs. Mostly Ogdoad (greater spirits), but a couple Nobles too.

It goes rather poorly.

#### Entrance

_< HG> The chandeliers glint. Brass automatons play stringed instruments in the corners. There are plates of hors d'oeuvres next to the hand of every major figure.  
<HG>Are you ready to make an entrance?  
<Sasha> Absolutely not  
<Sasha> but let's do it anyway_

Familia Kethredamen emerges from the curtains. Sonja inclines her head and smiles. Lionel has his Glorious on, and the crowd goes wild. Sasha sneaks out wearing her Unblemished Guise, so everyone just assumes she's part of the help, and also they are distracted by Lionel anyway. The three descend to work the crowd. And then Maddie shows up.

_< Maddie> I slam open the door to the banquet hall, spending 2 AMP for a level 4 miracle if it's the kind of door that takes more than one person to open  
<Maddie> I'm wearing the same clothes from yesterday that got torn up in the chase  
<HG> (You get a Chancel discount, so actually that's free)  
<HG> The crowd goes quiet with what one assumes is either anticipation or dread.  
<Maddie> "My subjects, your birthday girl has arrived!"  
<Sasha> Sasha bursts out laughing  
<Sasha> And then she bites her tongue  
<HG> The brass servitors make a valiant effort to fill the awkward silence with what would be a string quartet piece if it was being played by a hundred and three different instruments from all directions._

Maddie descends and shows everyone that she has an incredibly impressive crown with an 8-Will Intention. (I assessed this to have an Obstacle 2 because ragged clothes and cardboard crown, but that still means an effective Intention level of 6.) Maddie pulls this outfit off, and some of the lesser spirits are genuinely impressed. The Maiden of the Winter Solstice, who has seen Maddie at these events frequently, has brought Maddie a bonbon, which Maddie receives with regal grace and then immediately eats.

Sasha attempts to use Aspect to eavesdrop on the gathering to see if there's any gossip about Rhonda (the Power of Cups from the previous session) or Heat (the unhinged Noble from the previous session). There's nothing on Rhonda. There's something on Heat.

 _< HG> Soil's-Regal and the Marchessa of Lawns are having a rather heated discussion about the exact nature of artificial turf. The Mississippi River's naiad is trying to swipe the last of the miniature quiche tarts before the spirit of the Sears Tower gets to it. Rhonda is not mentioned.  
<HG> Lord Fruit is talking to some other Power's Anchor about Heat. Would you like to listen more closely to that conversation?  
<Sasha> absolutely  
<HG> "-- Heat's already seriously screwed up the seasonal cycles of the apple trees in the region. How the hell is the Prosaic trying to explain this anyway?"  
<HG> "Severe El Nino, is what the forecasters are calling it. But this kind of heat wave is unprecedented. If it keeps getting hotter we're going to have a mass _dementia animus _outbreak. Duke Epidemiology's been telling my boss that there's already way more cases than usual - "_

But before she can do anything about this, Maddie has taken the stage again. To announce that she is holding a spelling bee. For forbidden words.

_< Maddie> I think at this point, Maddie interrupts by announcing loudly enough for the entire banquet hall to hear: "May I have your attention please? In a few minutes we will begin the first annual Locus Kethredamen Spelling Bee!"  
<Maddie> "'A spelling bee,' you ask. 'Isn't that a boring old thing for kids?' Well not this one, ladies and gentlemen."  
<Maddie> "Today I will challenge you to spell the most harrowing words in Creation."  
<Maddie> "Words you should never speak. Words you should never hear. And worse."  
<Maddie> "But for now, carry on! I still need a few minutes to prepare."_

Sonja, who has also been listening for discussions involving Heat, tries to insert herself into the conversation between Lord Fruit and that Anchor who was speaking to him. They exchange pleasantries. Sonja tries to bring up the topic of Heat, but the conversation is rapidly derailed onto the topic of Maddie's peculiar announcement and whether it was planned. (It wasn't.)

#### Spelling

Maddie passes around a signup sheet and has the stage set up with chairs and podiums. The contestants are Sasha, Sonja, a handful of spirits, and... a Noble who is extremely mysterious and indistinct. Sasha inquires with the Raven (her internal representation of the Noble society) as to who this is, and the Raven is uncharacteristically coy about it until Sasha pushes a Treasure miracle into it. Even after the Treasure miracle, the Raven can only say that the Noble is "Rumor."

The signup sheet for the spelling bee has the names of everyone except Rumor. Where Rumor's name should be, there is only a pressed red carnation, meaning "yes". Maddie calls whoever-it-is up to the podium by the name of Carnation, and presents them the first word to spell:

_< Maddie> "Your word is..."  
<Maddie> Maddie pauses dramatically.  
<Maddie> She takes a deep breath.  
<Maddie> "..."  
<Maddie> "...bulls**t."_  
_< Lionel> Lionel dies a little inside  
<Sonja> Sonja pinches her nose and hangs her head.  
<Sasha> Sasha uses an Aspect 3 Miracle of Skill: Keeping My Shit Together_

The hair-curlingly forbidden words that Maddie was promising earlier? Are cursewords. (Maddie is thirteen, okay?) In any case, Rumor spells the given word with... a flower.

 _< HG> The figure produces a bit of dogsbane. Yes. That definitely means bulls**t. You're pretty sure it _spells _bulls**t, too. The fact that the figure never actually spoke it aloud is immaterial.  
<HG> (The meaning given for dogsbane in my flower reference is "deceit/falsehood")  
<Maddie> "Fascinating! That is... correct. Somehow. You may take a seat."_

Most of the crowd figures that there's nothing wrong with this. But not Sasha! Sasha was already suspicious about Rumor's mysterious appearance, and uses this suspicion as a lever to pry whatever Rumor's doing out of her head entirely. Upon which she finds out that Rumor is surrounding themselves with a miracle to continuously blur the details of whatever they're doing.

_< Sasha> I take a Wound to resist whatever psychosocial bullshit Rumor is clearly pulling  
<HG> ok call it Serious  
<Sasha> it gives the Affliction "I must distrust the Dominus Rumor"  
<HG> OK then, Sasha, you know that Rumor is definitely talking, and also using a miracle of some description to prevent anyone from actually pinning down what kind of words are going on here and how they are being used. They did spell "bulls**t" correctly, though._

Sasha text-messages her Familia about this - having Anchored her phone, she doesn't even need to take it out to do this, she can just think it at the phone and have it done - as the spelling bee continues to its second, and then third, round. A few participants drop out because they're too embarrassed to spell cursewords. Sasha disqualifies herself by purposely spelling the _wrong_ curseword. But cursewords aren't exactly difficult to spell, so there are relatively few eliminations.

_< HG> (Rumor answers being asked to spell a certain word for a certain part of the male anatomy with a sweet william. Which means "manhood". Checks out.)_

Most of the audience doesn't realize there's anything wrong with Rumor's... unusual... method of spelling words. _Most_ of the audience. There are a few in the back who are a little more skeptical. Sasha overhears them and steps into the conversation.

 _< HG> "Who the hell is that?"  
<HG> "It's just a _spelling bee _, Soil, what's the big deal with them wreathing themselves?"  
<HG> "Why should they need to wreath themselves for a little gathering like this?"  
<Sasha> "It's Rumor."_

Sasha dispels her Unblemished Guise, to the consternation of all the other participants in this conversation. They are horrified by Sasha's still being in her 7-11 uniform.

 _< HG> A collective sigh. "This is a fancy dress ball," says Lawns, "and you should have known this because _you wrote the invitations _."_

Sonja comes in to back up Sasha by insulting Lawns' own choice of outfit. Sasha, for her part, is still preoccupied by Heat and Rumor. She decides to forcibly steer the conversation towards them.

#### The Accused

 _< Sasha>_ _"May I suggest re-focusing on Rumor and their obvious connection to Heat and the Green Snake Order?"_  
_< HG> "Who and the what now?" says Soil's-Regal._

Soil's-Regal and the Marchessa of Lawns had nothing to do with the prior conversation on Heat. They are puzzled. (At this point, I warned the players that continuing the conversation under the premise that Rumor was in any way related to Heat, or Rhonda, would be deeply inadvisable. They continued anyway.)

_< HG> (the ones discussing Heat were Lord Fruit and someone's Anchor, who are still watching the Mississippi River struggle to spell "motherf**ker")_

Sasha asks the Raven a quick question about who might be involved with Heat. The Raven says that Lawns doesn't know anything. The Raven also says that Soil knows something. Sasha decides to try bluffing, proceeding under the assumption that Soil is also colluding with Heat and/or Rumor to see if this will turn up anything.

_< HG> Soil's-Regal draws himself up to full height and tosses part of his bearskin over his shoulder disdainfully. "What are you implying, Aliki."  
<Sasha> "I, Sasha Konstanian, Baroness of Alienation, Member of the Robber's Order, accuse you of collusion with the rogue Power Heat to unlawfully expand his influence over Earth at risk to the Prosaic."_

Soil's-Regal has the twin revelations that a) Alienation has been replaced and b) Alienation's replacement has just accused him of trying to weaken Creation. With a lovely sense of dramatic timing, the entire rest of the ballroom happens to fall silent to hear this.

_< HG> ([As Raven:] "What in the name of Cneph's left testicle was _that _for?")  
<Sasha> ("Oh, I'm sorry, was I not catching your implications correctly?")  
<HG> ("I said he knows something, not that he's involved! Also, you don't accuse someone based on a _hunch _!")_

Lionel promptly collars Sasha, drags her out into the hallway, and asks what the hell she did that for. She explains. Lionel is not impressed by this explanation.

_< Sasha> "Aren't you a power of the Dark?"  
<Sasha> "Let me burn up. That's my right, isn't it?"  
<Lionel> "If you were human, sure."_  
_< Sasha> "Maybe it's just the heart, just the Raven [that's Noble]."  
<Lionel> "Then sort that out first."  
<Sasha> "Fine."  
<Sasha> Sasha Incarnates into the sense of alienation between her noble and her human sides._

At this point Sasha goes on some sort of spirit journey. I request that this spirit journey happen offscreen, in favor of getting everyone else and the party resolved first.

#### Meanwhile

While Sasha is on her spirit journey, the situation in the ballroom deteriorates. Most of the spirits and some of the Nobles flee, not wanting to get caught in miracle-slinging. Maddie abandons the spelling bee, and promptly challenges Soil to a duel. Soil is ready to defend himself. Then the cavalry arrive. And by cavalry, I mean a horse. Who is a Noble. And not Stephen from the previous entry.

_< HG> Once Sasha has been collared and dragged out into the hallway, [Soil] sighs. "So that isn't Aliki, then?"  
<Maddie> "Aliki? I think it's pronounced alkali, and no, Sasha's definitely not an alkali metal."  
<Maddie> "As a horse," the horse says, "I think you are completely misunderstanding the question."_

(Before you ask, the horse had been mentioned as being at the party before this appearance, so this wasn't a total surprise.)

_< Maddie> Maddie side-eyes the horse. "Who are you, anyway? What are you doing in my domain?"  
<HG> "I am attending your party. As a horse."_  
_< Maddie> "...would you like to be challenged to a duel as well?"  
<Maddie> "We could have a wrestling tournament, maybe!"  
<HG> "As a horse, I must respectfully decline this invitation. I have other important things to be doing that do not involve wrestling. Also you would probably break my legs."_

After the horse breaks the tension, Maddie tells Soil that her parents will contact him with a time and place to fight, since fighting in the ballroom would be "unsporting". Maddie leaves the ballroom to look for Sasha. She finds Sonja, instead, who has lost her nerve. There is a heartwarming conversation where Maddie reminds Sonja that they are both Nobles and can just _decide_ to be confident. Sonja does so, and then goes back to the ballroom with Maddie.

_< HG> Lord Fruit draws Sonja aside as soon as she enters. "Did you know she was going to do that?"  
<Sonja> "Nope, no idea. But I'm going with it. Got to present a unified front of course."  
<HG> "The living society also must present a unified front," he says, sadly.  
<HG> Then he punches you._

Maddie sees Sonja get punched for supporting Sasha's accusation, and reacts by getting angry and preparing for a fight. Soil's-Regal sticks Maddie in a bubble of clay, which he has specifically constructed so that it wouldn't have pores big enough to let Maddie out even if she did turn into fog.

_< HG> "Can we not," Soil says, as if commenting on the weather._

#### Return

Sasha comes back from her implicit character development, now realizing that she seriously screwed something up. She decides to make a statement to attempt to repair this.

_< Sasha> "Soil."  
<Sasha> "I take full responsibility for the actions of my familia."  
<Sasha> "In accordance with the Chestnut Law, I accept seven baseless accusations against my honor, and no more."  
<HG> "You are a fool," says Soil, "and I would have you put in the deepest chambers for your indiscretion, were you not of your status."  
<Sasha> Sasha smiles and holds up one finger._

Soil elects to save the other six statements for later, turns Maddie's containment back into normal dirt, and leaves. The few remaining guests decide to leave before anything else happens.

_< HG> There is now a gigantic pile of dirt on the floor of the ballroom. The brass servitors whir in dismay and begin swarming out en masse with brooms and dustpans.  
<HG> Now that everyone is gone, in comes Keith.  
<HG> He scoops up a good fraction of the dirt and eats it, crunching on the poor brass servitor that happened to get caught too.  
<HG> That did not sound like a successful party, Keith indicates, and also the soil is very salty._

The familia attempts, and mostly fails, to explain what happened.

Oh, and Sonja has one last trick to pull. She decides to make a metaphor that insults Heat, hopefully baiting him into coming for a confrontation.

_< Sonja> Before the evening closes, Sonja's going to step outside the chancel. Her nose has been bandaged and she's got something she wants to do. Hopefully it'll catch some attention  
<Sonja> Sonja performs a Greater Creation of Metaphors, embedding an aphorism into the everyday vocabulary of mundane people  
<Sonja> To say, whenever it's too warm for comfort, "I guess Heat is throwing a tantrum again."_

#### On The Next Episode...

Rumor.

Oh, and also I guess Heat is probably going to come up too.


	4. Session 3: Fire

_An almost-truth is far more dangerous than a blatant lie. A blatant lie can be disproven by anyone with a pair of eyes. Something that is terribly close to the truth can eat away at certainty for days or weeks or years without being discovered._

_\- reportedly said by Su-Cheol Kim, Dominus Whistleblowing_

* * *

Today: lots of setup and foreshadowing! And also a fight!

Also, you may have noticed in some of the previous writeups that Lionel's player has been rather quiet. In this session, I tried to help with this by making more scene prompts that directly involve Lionel in some way or other. Which I think has improved matters some.

#### Foreshadowing

Maddie is out looking for shooting stars. Sonja is taking a walk. Sasha is working. Lionel is people-watching.

Someone is behind Lionel. He turns. It's Rumor.

_< HG> Rumor is behind you. There is a sheaf of broken straw in their hands. ("Dissension." Trouble in the ranks.)_

Rumor hints at some sort of social trouble, but flees when the Dark Magister Kethredamen comes in. Keith asks Lionel if he saw any Nobles stick around after the party. Lionel decides not to cover for Rumor, and tells Keith that he's seen Rumor around. Keith leaves, presumably to go looking. Lionel looks at the straw Rumor left behind, and pockets it.

#### Magic Words

Lionel wanders around and finds Maddie, just outside the Chancel, still looking for shooting stars. (This particular Chancel doorway is in a mom-and-pop restaurant next to a national park.)

_< HG> Because it was the middle of winter just a few days before, the place where Maddie is stargazing from is oddly devoid of insect noises.  
<HG> A few birds are already screaming at the dawn that hasn't happened yet.  
<HG> Other than that it's dark and good for stargazing and all that, I suppose._

Maddie gets sick of waiting for a shooting star to appear and just screams at the sky.

_< Maddie> Maddie makes a frustrated noise. "Whatever, I don't have time to wait for this!" She balls her hands into fists and shouts at the sky: "I wish fire was a letter!"_  
_< HG> What?_

I ask for clarification on this one. Maddie's player's clarification is unhelpful, so I just take the wish literally.

_< HG> There is a single birthday candle in Maddie's lap. It is in the shape of the letter K. It is in fact on fire._

Lionel asks Maddie what she was trying to accomplish. Maddie explains that she wants magic words, and fire being a letter would... presumably... enable the creation of magic words? Somehow?

_< Maddie> "But like, that's not the point. The point is I want magic words and I can't find any so I thought I could make some!"  
<Lionel> “Where have you looked?” He probably shouldn’t encourage this but he’d rather be able to keep an eye on it than not  
<Maddie> "If fire was a letter then I could make words out of it, maybe, and I don't know, I'd figure it out from there."_

Sasha is off shift now, and comes out the back door to find a frustrated Maddie and a confused Lionel. She manages to get a coherent statement from Maddie: Maddie wants more powers so she can be a proper superhero.

_< Sasha> "Why do you want magic words so badly?"  
<Maddie> "I want magic words because I don't have enough cool powers."  
<Maddie> Maddie fog-shifts. "I mean, this is great and all, but it's not really enough for a super awesome superhero on its own."  
<Maddie> "What do I use to hit people? I only barely have super strength!"_

Sasha figures that a witch could teach Maddie some magic words, and - with Maddie's excited assent - asks the Raven about where she might find a witch. The Raven's response is rather vague.

_< HG> ("...If you insist. There's one who lives at Devil's Lake. Unfortunately that's all I know and there are at least thirty different lakes called Devil's Lake.")_

Sasha decides to save finding the witch for later. Maddie goes back inside the Chancel, and tells Sonja excitedly that she's going to go to a witch to learn words made of fire. Sonja is utterly confused.

#### Straw

_< HG> so, Lionel. You want to talk about that straw you have in your pocket there?_

Now that Sasha and Lionel are alone, Lionel brings up the vague warning Rumor gave earlier. Sasha is initially displeased, considering Rumor a "deceptive bastard" (her words), but decides to ask the Raven if it knows anything about this trouble in the ranks. Without being asked, the Raven comes out Sasha's ear and perches on her shoulder, the better to talk to Lionel.

_< HG> "I figured this would be more expedient."_

The Raven says that there is a subtle rot, and it thinks that the Unclean Kings are involved in this rot somehow. It wants this Familia's help with investigating and rooting things out, because the usual channels for doing so have been compromised.

 _< HG> "I'd tell you more, but the networks that would tell me more are part of the problem."  
<HG> "I _can't _deal with this from my position. I can't act on myself. That was one of the provisions of my existence. I can act on you, and you can act on me, and so that is why I am asking for help."  
<HG> It's not a question._

They ask exactly what sort of help the Raven wants. The Raven tells them to go find one of the Pure Ones, since they're the ones who can figure out if and how the Unclean Kings are involved.

_< HG> "The Shepherds would be able to tell you more than I can. If you can get an audience with one of them."_

#### A Boat

Later, the Familia gathers, and Sasha notes that Rhonda hasn't responded to her for some time, so they might need to check in on her to make sure Heat hasn't pounded her into the ground again.

 _< Maddie> "Hey Sasha, has your girlfriend made any headway hunting for Dominus Heat?"  
<Sasha> "...Sounds like no, and also she's not my girlfriend."_ _  
<Maddie> "_ _:P"_ _  
<Sasha> "I'm beginning to feel highly platonic concern for her, though."_

Lionel goes to work. A maze of string and pushpins later, he figures out where Heat actually is. (Yeah, they knew he was in Canada, but saying he's in "Canada" is like saying he's in "the United States". It's not nearly specific enough.)

_< HG> Heat is in the Arctic Ocean. You presumably have to come out of a Chancel exit in like Saskatchewan or something and take... idk. What kind of transport do you have north? Sasha's car isn't exactly amphibious_

They do a brief survey of the nearby transport vehicles. Most of them are designed for ice and snow that no longer exists. They are stumped, until Sonja uses an aphorism.

_< Maddie> "We could swim!"  
<Sonja> "whatever floats your boat."_

Since aphorisms are close enough to metaphors, Sonja's ability to make metaphors literally true applies here. And so an uninhabited shack nearby becomes a houseboat. A very rickety houseboat, but a houseboat nevertheless.

_< Sonja> Sonja points at the houseboat. "This floats at least. Maddie could kick and push it?"  
<Maddie> Maddie goes around to stand behind it. She smacks it with her fist.  
<HG> It slides forward a foot or two.  
<Maddie> "...um, actually I am just now realizing I'm a bit more tired than I thought."_

Maddie doesn't have enough Aspect miracle points to actually push the boat around. They look around for other options.

 _< Sonja> "I could say the boat is fast as a speeding bullet."  
<HG> You may want to get on the boat _before _saying that._

Sasha uses her Robber-and-Raven position to acquire a boat engine. Unfortunately, it isn't attached to a boat. They're staring down the possibility of having to attach it, without the miracle points to do so in a remotely efficient manner. This is when Sonja gets impatient.

#### No Boat

_< Sonja> I'm gonna do a lesser creation of metaphors, such that "we're standing in front of the Power of Heat" is a metaphor for something  
<Sonja> Now I'm gonna make it literal_

Sonja decides unilaterally that they shouldn't bother with the boat, and dumps everyone into the Arctic Ocean directly in front of Heat. I mention that this is a stupid idea, but the players point out that no, it would be funnier this way. So I go along.

_< HG> OK then. Sploosh!  
<Sasha> Sasha is unhappy. This is her only clean uniform._

Everyone is now soaked. And, as Sonja specified that they are directly in front of the Power of Heat...

_< HG> The Power of Heat is riding a jetski.  
<HG> You are in front of him. He is ramming through you.  
<HG> Save yourselves and such?_

Maddie immediately covers the area in fog, and uses a Lesser Creation of Bad Weather (her secondary domain) to have a strong gust of wind crash Heat into a conveniently placed iceberg. Heat curses and struggles to right the jetski he was previously on.

_< Maddie> "I've got you now, miscreant!"_

Sonja suddenly realizes that she has a problem. She is metaphysically attached to the exact copy of the book that she was enNobled from. She is carrying this book. And a book that is soaking wet is liable to disintegrate if it moves around too much. Lionel helps by applying an enchantment of Ice Cream - ice cream provides respite. Sonja was going to take a Deadly Wound and start unraveling at the edges, but Lionel's help makes being soaked merely a major inconvenience rather than life-threatening. She's still soaked to the spine in ice cold water, though.

_< Sonja> [Serious Wound, Affliction 1:] I'm freezing and moving is really hard_

While the above negotiation about the exact shape of the Wound is taking place, Sasha uses her power as a Robber to eminent domain Heat's jetski.

_< Sasha> "Raven, take that jetski."  
<Sasha> Sasha flourishes and unleashes a Treasure 5 miracle._

#### On Fire

Heat is now in possession of one fewer jetski than previously. Which means his movement options in the water are suddenly very limited.

_< HG> Heat is currently melting the iceberg he's been thrown against. The jetski has proven remarkably uncooperative, owing to it belonging to Sasha now. He finally gives up trying to wrestle the jetski back into his possession and is attempting to steer the iceberg itself by making steam come out the back._

Sasha sends the jetski in Maddie's general direction. Maddie climbs aboard and scoops a soaked Sonja out of the water. But Sasha isn't done using Treasure quite yet. She summons her car and drops it on top of Heat.

_< HG> Heat struggles to get the car off himself, finally wrenching it free of himself and flinging it into the water nearby._

_< HG> There are tire tracks on his face._

Heat attempts to set all the oil and gas in the car on fire to make it explode. Sasha Wounds herself to save her car, and instead takes the brunt of the miracle herself. Which means that she is on fire now.

_< HG> Okay! Sasha is on fire.  
<Sasha> It's probably fine._

Sonja briefly possesses her ~~phylactery~~ book. It is still inside her bookbag. Sinking deep beneath the ocean. And she's too paralyzed by being soaked in ice cold water to be able to retrieve it.

Meanwhile, Lionel climbs up onto Heat's iceberg, turns his Glorious on full blast, and startles Heat into listening to him for a few precious seconds.

 _< HG>_ _See, the thing about pleasant feelings is that it's awfully tempting to not stop them.  
<HG> __And so Heat is just letting Glorious happen._

#### Rhonda (Again)

Rhonda, who has been pursuing Heat for all this time, finally shows up.

_< HG> Rhonda swims into view. She's wearing a scuba suit and flippers. She does a backflip right up next to Lionel. "Wait," she says, rapidly getting a sense of the current situation, "how did you get him to listen to you??"_  
_< Lionel> Lionel winks_

Sasha is a little flustered. Rhonda waves.

_< Sasha> "I think we'll let Lionel handle this," Sasha says. She's still very on fire.  
<HG> Rhonda has been on fire a couple times in her life. She understands._

Lionel demands that Heat explain why he's doing this. He gets a few words out of Heat's mouth before Heat manages to shake off the Glorious. Apparently that deal he struck with Cars isn't happening fast enough. And then Heat regains control of himself.

_< HG> "I got tired of waiting. Like I'm tired of -"  
<HG> Heat bangs his head onto the iceberg underneath him. Something cracks. He looks back up at Lionel and snarls.  
<HG> "What did you do to me!?"  
<HG> The iceberg is rather rapidly losing its form underneath your feet. Distressingly warm water is sheeting off it._

At the urging of Sasha, Rhonda throws drinking-glasses at Heat; they shatter and melt together into a lump of glass encasing him.

_< HG> Heat sinks._

Rhonda goes diving after Heat, but finds something rather more important in the water first.

 _< HG>_ _A few moments later she surfaces with a familiar bookbag._  
_< HG> "You were looking for this?" She tosses it over the handles of the jetski and goes back under.  
<Sonja> "My book!" Sonja grabs it and clings tightly to it._

Several minutes later, Rhonda returns from the seafloor with Heat. She creates a cup that just so happens to look a lot like a kayak. She heaves Heat, still encased in glass, inside.

_< HG> You can probably guess what he's trying to yell through the glass, but it's pretty muffled.  
<Sasha> "Maddie, don't repeat that."  
<Maddie> "It's not like it's going to burn my tongue if I did."_

Rhonda tries to push her boat, thinks better of it, and asks for a tow. They harness the jetski to the front of Rhonda's "cup" with Sonja's twine, and slowly ride off.

#### On The Next Episode...

The Familia goes off to try and find at least one of the people they were told to find. This might not help.


	5. Session 4: Cleave

_Impurity is perpetuated by excuses. You are a Noble. You have no reason to desire love. You have no reason to fear death. If you perpetuate these feelings, you are letting a wild horse drag your cart behind it, when at any moment you could sit up and take the reins._

\- from _The Book of Purity_ , by Samsi Mandaru

* * *

(A bit late, but better than never, right? Also, note that Sonja's player was absent for this session.)

Familia Kethredamen has been advised to meet with one of the Shepherds. Because things happen so quickly on the Internet, and the Digital Cleave therefore needs an incredibly fast turnaround time on defense and cleansing, the Shepherd of the Digital Cleave just so happens to be the only Shepherd that can be found on the order of weeks rather than years.

Unfortunately, the easiest way of getting to him is through his Cleave.

Which is filled with impolite and disrespectful Nobles.

* * *

#### Timeskip

The next few weeks, waiting for a meeting of the Digital Cleave, pass relatively quickly. Personal projects happen in the meantime:

Lionel helps out with fixing things Heat broke. Apparently the Power of Glaciers appreciated it.

Sonja has shut herself in with a space heater and a selection of books about modern times, and has been reading them alphabetically by topic. So far she has gotten to "buses".

Sasha is still working at the 7-11. (Apparently they happened to have a fireproof suit with the company logo in the back room.) Eventually she stopped being on fire. And has been spending her time doing Unspecified Mental Yoga, or something.

Maddie canvasses the length and width of Russia. She does not find Devil's Lake there.

#### Whatever, Duke

The Familia Kethredamen formally requests to attend the pre-meeting reception of the Digital Cleave. The request is accepted. So they head over to the Chancel that is home to one Duke of Telephony. Or, well, Sasha and Lionel head over. Maddie sends her mother Grace Clarkson, so she can beg off the social stuff and continue looking for Devil's Lake. (Lionel quietly Unblemished Guises himself so he can observe without immediately being recognized as a Noble.)

_< HG> The Chancel the Digital Cleave is meeting at is a series of treehouses. Rather opulent treehouses. All perched on top of telephone poles. It's the Duke of Telephony's turn to host, apparently._

When they arrive, they are ushered in by the Baron of Startups ("Mark", apparently), and promptly accosted by -

_< Maddie> "I'm Grace, here on behalf of my daughter, the Domina Fog. You may have heard of her... spelling bee."  
<HG> "I would totally have wrecked that spelling bee if I was invited. Why wasn't I invited?" pipes up a thirteen-year-old wearing a gaming headset.  
<HG> Mark sighs. "That's the Duke of Telephony."  
<HG> The Duke of Telephony pipes up: "My name is Bophades Updag!"  
<HG> "Whatever, Duke," says someone else from deeper into the treehouse._

The Duke of Telephony, in the manner of certain young teenagers on certain online gaming services, apparently interacts with people entirely through insults and memes. (Not even good memes. Anyone who calls themselves "Bophades Updag" has terrible taste.)

_< Maddie> Grace is conferring with Maddie to learn the meanings of what Bophades has been saying. Her frown only deepens._

The group awkwardly tries to ignore Bophades and his constant stream of racist insults. They are thus introduced to others from the Digital Cleave. First, the long-suffering Dominus of Wires, one Olive Biskli:

_< HG> The individual in the other room pulls a bead curtain or something open and strides in. He holds out his hand for a shake. "Olive Biskli, Dominus Wires, at your service."  
<HG> "Forgive Duke. He's thirteen."_

Sasha begins talking with him. The Dominus Wires happens to dislike Sasha. Part of it is because he disliked Aliki. Part of it is because he dislikes noobs. And part of it is because he's heard a thing or two about Sasha from Soil's-Regal.

#### Jason

As the reception goes on, the Cleave takes a good look at Sasha, Grace, and (Guised) Lionel, and are not terribly impressed by what they see.

_< HG> Olive looks around, then goes back to addressing Sasha again. "You said you'd be bringing your Familia along. Who are these people?"  
<Sasha> "Anchors, mostly."  
<Sasha> "Poor Maddie couldn't make it, so she sent Grace in her stead."_

Maddie's mother tries to peel off to the other corner of the room and find someone more sympathetic. Unfortunately, she finds someone less sympathetic. Turns out that Jason Wong, the Power of Booleans, is a stupendous misogynist.

 _< HG> "We're not sending a bunch of Anchors and a _girl _to go meet Toby Houston," says Jason. "He doesn't meet just anyone."_

Lionel decides that this is the time to intervene. He drops his Unblemished Guise.

_< Lionel> "You should reconsider your attitude towards my familia."  
<HG> "O-oh," says Jason. "I didn't realize you were... well, why do your familia want to meet him anyway?"_

Sasha attempts to take control of the situation. She fails.

_< Sasha> "We have business concerning the integrity of the Society of Flowers. To speak freely of it would invite the hearing of unfriendly ears."  
<Sasha> And I think she manifests the Raven on her shoulder just to add to her gravitas.  
<HG> Somehow Jason continues to ignore Sasha. Bophades yells into the other room: "Hey Toby, some b**** wants to meet you for some reason!"  
<HG> Olive sighs. "Duke, we still have an hour. Maybe don't alienate them yet."_

Maddie, who has been listening in via her mother, wreaths said mother in the Divine Mantle of Fog and tries to convince her to punch Jason. Grace is less enthusiastic about the punching thing.

#### Jason (continued)

Sasha uses a Persona miracle to not lose her temper, and then gets through to Jason. For a moment.

_< Sasha> Sasha spends 4 PMP to give herself the Affliction "My heart breeds apathy."  
<Sasha> Then she uses 2AMP for a Aspect 2 miracle of Skill: Listen Up, Bitch  
<Sasha> "I am a Noble of Familia Kethredamen. I am a Power of the Dark. I am one of the bastions of reality, same as you, and you will treat me with the respect I am due or come to regret it."  
<Sasha> There's no malice in it, just statement of fact.  
<HG> Jason blinks.  
<HG> "Y-yes, miss."_

Of course, as soon as Sasha has dropped her intention, he promptly goes back to ignoring her because she's a girl. Then he questions Lionel as to why they bothered with the Digital Cleave.

_< HG> "Why are you asking us? Surely some other Pure One would have been more relevant to this situation?"  
<Lionel> "Are you trying to get out of being of assistance? Why, because we're, ah, 'gay b****es', I believe your friend said?"_

Maddie has had enough of this. She acts.

_< Maddie> Grace takes a step forward and shoves Jason by the shoulders.  
<HG> Quick as a flash, Mark is behind Jason. "One more move and you are ejected from this meeting." _

Sasha tells Maddie to stop. She does so only reluctantly.

Jason tries to beg off being involved in any way, because Toby Houston doesn't involve himself in Noble society very often, and as such wouldn't typically care about anything that happens there. In response, Sasha goes on the offensive. 

_< Sasha> "Jason, am I correct in guessing, that as the Internet has such little bearing on our society, that Booleans must have far less?"  
<Sasha> "Forgive me my uneducated perspective, of course."  
<Sasha> "But from time to time I do use the internet when communicating with my familia, or even my Imperator."  
<Sasha> "Surely, if Toby Houston's estate is of so little pertinence, _nobody would notice if the Enemy were to snuff out yours _?"_

The rest of the Digital Cleave does not take this speech well. Sasha turns her verbal judo in their direction.

 _< Sasha> Sasha puts a hand over her heart. "My dear Startups, you misjudge me. I was simply extrapolating from Jason's own words what he must think about his own Estate. As a dedicated member of the Order of the Ravens, I would certainly move to protect any Estate under enemy siege."  
<Sasha> "After all, it's not as though you of the Digital Cleave are any less a member of the Society of Flowers than myself."  
<Sasha> "_It would be awfully rude of me to leave you to dry when you need help _, would it not?"_

#### Trumpet

It is here that Toby Houston finally makes an entrance.

_< HG> Olive comes marching out of a side door. He is playing a trumpet. Behind him walks Toby Houston, Internet's-Regal, Shepherd of the Digital Cleave, wearing the insignia of the Shepherds and looking annoyed.  
<HG> "I'm here. Are you happy now?" says Toby.  
<HG> Olive does not stop playing the trumpet until Mark puts a hand on his shoulder and shushes him._

There are formalities and introductions in the usual vein.

_< HG> Mark is holding Olive's trumpet away from him to prevent him from continuing to passive-aggressively play it into Familia Kethredamen's ears._

Sasha, Lionel, and Grace file into the room where Toby Houston will hold court with them.

_< HG> As they leave the room they hear a trumpet._

#### Internet's-Regal

After a pleasantry or two, Sasha brings up that the Raven told her that the Unclean Kings might be at work here. Toby Houston says he hasn't seen anything of the sort. Sasha decides to insist on the truth.

_< Sasha> "...May I speak candidly and trust you won't take offense?"_  
<HG> Toby sits up and makes an unfamiliar gesture with his hands. "The pact of the Laodan honesty rites, that neither of us will be purposely speaking insult or offense, but that we may use words that may unintentionally imply such for the sole purpose of making our communications as clear as possible?"  
<Sasha> "The very same. You agree."  
<HG> "Yes." 

One pledge of ~~Fantasy Crocker's Rules~~ Laodan honesty later, Sasha explains that the way that the Digital Cleave has acted is disrespectful and hostile, and that this kind of uncooperation is precisely what gives the Excrucians an opportunity to drive a wedge into Noble society. Toby Houston responds that he hasn't seen any Excrucian involved in this. It is just the ordinary sort of pettiness.

_< HG> "Any pettiness that has been demonstrated is theirs, and theirs alone. I can speak with them, but such a discussion would be outside my official remit, and I have no guarantee that it would be respected."_

Toby Houston agrees to look for further Excrucian involvement, and contact Sasha should anything come up in his research. He also suggests that Sasha find a more direct audience with those who tend Misenchronic Engine; those functionaries would be better-placed to observe anomalies in Noble society at large.

#### On The Next Episode...

Maddie follows up on the witch. Sonja is requested to come to a meeting.


	6. Session 5: Meetings

_Wikipedia was a daring gambit by the Power of Encyclopedias to preserve the Estate in a rapidly changing world. The fact that it also vastly increased the reach of the Power of Encyclopedias was an entirely unintentional (if convenient) side-effect._

_\-- The Other Side of Reality_ by Caitlin Katsaros

* * *

In this week's "session", because of sporadic availability, I tied up a couple of solo scenes. They take place in fun new places, because I like making fun new places. 

* * *

#### Stupid Tourist

_< HG> In the end, Devil's Lake turned out to be deep in China.   
<HG> It smells like marshwater and incense. A narrow path has been beaten through the grass.  
<HG> The hut next to the lake has a thatchgrass roof that stretches all the way from the top of a loft down to the ground. There is an old wooden sign hung up next to the door, in some obscure script that is not Mandarin Chinese at all, but some local language, still stubbornly used here despite multiple efforts to the contrary.  
<HG> There is, in theory, a door. It swings open in the wind._

Maddie finds what is presumably a witch's house. The door is answered by a young woman, who hears Maddie's request for forbidden knowledge and responds like a normal person would.

 _< Maddie> "I'm looking for words. Words that'll hurt me if I say them, and hurt anyone who hears too."  
<HG> "Oh. You're _that _kind." She yells out the back door. "Mother, there's a stupid tourist!"_

At some point, we find out that the girl's name is Daisy. The mother comes out, equally unimpressed by Maddie. This is when Maddie gets an idea.

_< Maddie> I'm going to spend 1 AMP for an Aspect miracle of Skill: Lies and Dirty Tricks  
<Maddie> and pretend to be like, the kind of beaten down traveler who shows up and asks for a bed and a meal and turns out to be a god?_

Maddie manages to present herself the sort of person that shows up in mythology to test one's willingness to present Sacred Hospitality. (I think technically that's a Greek thing, but I let it slide. I mean, it is entirely true that Maddie is secretly a god.)

_< HG> Who wouldn't offer polite hospitality at a time like this? Because these women certainly would._

#### Incognito

Over dinner, the incognito god finds out that the family of witches (of which there is a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter) has managed to wipe themselves off the official records, so that they stop getting bothered by the government. Unfortunately, in China the official records are required to do anything or go anywhere. The mother and grandmother don't care. Daisy, on the other hand, feels trapped.

_< HG> "I think they've finally decided that nobody lives here. Because officially, nobody lives here."  
<Maddie> "Ah, yes. I'm sure that's... a good thing?"  
<HG> "Not really," says Daisy. "I don't have an ID, so I can't go anywhere. Nobody would accept me to school, or for a job."  
<HG> "But I'm sure that's all right. Must keep the traditions in the family," says the grandmother. "Since you're the only one left."  
<HG>This is clearly an argument they have had several times before.  
<HG> Would you like to intervene, or should you just politely nod and smile?_

Later, after dinner, Maddie privately talks to Daisy, who is practicing some astronomy. Daisy confesses that she does not have those words of power Maddie wanted.

_< Maddie> "I happen to be a literal god. I have a heavenly house with portal-entrances everywhere and I can pull minor strings if I need to. If I were to get you an ID, and take you anywhere you like, what would that be worth to you?"  
<HG> Daisy pauses for more than a minute. Finally: "We don't have those words of power you were talking about wanting. We only work in powdered tigerbone and scouring-rushes. I'm afraid I couldn't help you even if I wanted to." _

Maddie offers to find Daisy an ID and transport her to where she wants to go (via Chancel). Daisy almost doesn't take this offer... because if she leaves, then the last embers of her particular witchcraft tradition will die out permanently. Maddie is about to leave... but then she has an idea.

_< Maddie> "You know. You could preserve traditions somewhere else."  
<Maddie> "Take them with you."  
<HG> "Wait... what do you mean?"  
<Maddie> "Practice your tiger powder and scoured star charts somewhere else. In a city with electricity and stuff."  
<HG> "So... like, making books? Or radio?"_

With Maddie pointing out to her that she can preserve her traditions without having to stay in backwater nowhere - she can write them down or something instead - she decides to leave. Daisy requests to be sent to a college to study astronomy.

Maddie uses a big Aspect miracle to legitimately complete all the paperwork - including the paperwork that would put Daisy on the map enough to go to college - within a single night. 

#### Locus Omphalos

_< HG> Sonja receives a formal calling card from the Power of Truth for a visit on neutral ground. You know, that kind of thing. What is unusual is that it is for a visit on someone else's neutral ground. Where allegedly she would be the other involved party._

The Power of Truth, Acadia West, invites Sonja to a brief meeting in Locus Omphalos. A visit on neutral ground, which is normal. But Locus Kethredamen is already usually neutral ground, so this selection of location implies that the amount of assumed trust here is unusually low.

_< HG> The other bits of the familia can fill her in on the various basic etiquette things - RSVPing, appropriate attire and belongings to bring (apparently you are only supposed to bring one "combat anchor", whatever that means), and so on and so forth  
<Sonja> I don't believe she has anything that would qualify as a "combat anchor"  
<Sonja> though I suspect the knife and twine could work in a pinch!  
<HG> I mean they're not primarily for combat so they don't really count in this case - using Anchors for things outside of their specific Wondrous or Miraculous power that you use them for is usually not the best idea unless you're using the wishlike effect or wish levels  
<HG> Pushing a noncombat anchor to do combat, therefore, would likely seriously damage it, and therefore presumably a Noble would have an incentive not to do so_

As has become usual, Sonja doesn't do formalwear, but she does RSVP and prepare to attend.

 _< HG> Locus Omphalos is a Mayan city ripped out of time, on top of a mountain. The structures are ancient stone with creeping lichen. But there's a section with a bunch of offices, meeting spaces, and a banquet hall.  
<HG> Above the banquet hall is one of those nifty retractable ceilings, silver hydraulics looking terribly incongruous with the surroundings. You see it closed up as a rain starts to fall.  
<HG> _ _You meet the Power of Truth in one of the larger meeting-spaces. It has precisely two exits. There are sets of chairs near each exit. A table in the middle is a rough-hewn block of granite... with hotel stationary and a silver pen provided on top of it._

Locus Omphalos is a Mayan city studded with modern comforts. Sonja is steered to a pre-booked meeting room. Acadia West, Power of Truth, enters. There are the usual pleasantries, and then they get down to business.

_< HG> "A true accusation of Encroachment of Estate would be a rather serious matter, so I'd like to talk this over first, just to make sure we don't have any simple misunderstandings going on." Acadia takes up the pen and casually flips it in an elaborate pattern around his fingers. "But I do believe you've been recklessly making things into truth."_

Acadia notes that he has seen a handful of Truths come from Sonja, who should not have the ability to do this. Sonja explains that she has a Gift for minor creations of Truth, to turn a metaphor's contents into reality. Then she explains that she only uses it for work. Well, work and...

#### Social Contract

 _< Sonja> "All for Heaven's glory."_  
_< HG> "Huh." He blinks, distinctly, once. "Has Diane dropped by you and yours? There's a bit of a welcome packet."_  
_< Sonja> "I don't believe I've met her, no." Sonja rubs her arm, looking a bit awkward. "I'm the only member of my familia wishing to serve Heaven."_

Upon finding out that Sonja follows the Song of Heaven, Acadia is quite surprised. He invites her to the social associations of the Powers of Heaven, promising to send a request ahead.

They return to their previous business. Sonja agrees to be prudent with her use of her Truth-gift. Then Acadia explains why he asked Sonja about this, specifically, rather than pinning this on the Society.

_< HG> "This kind of explicit contract is relatively rare," he says. "But the presence of Aliki has long forced us to enumerate and formally agree upon basic elements of the social contract with your familia, since she has this... habit. Of encroachment and disregard."_

Sonja points out that Aliki is, in fact, extremely dead.

Acadia says everyone figured that Aliki's presumed death was just a ruse. He believes her now that he can see her speaking truth, but nobody else will.

_< Sonja> "Truth will have to be self-evident, I suppose." Sonja shrugs. "Or Sasha will have to prove that she is Alienation herself."  
<HG> "Then make her."_

After that it is just small talk.

#### On The Next Episode...

Diane Spinnaker.


	7. Session 6: Deathday

_< TigerAnchor> hey so your faq mentioned that mr. attractive is so attractive that he will literally turn you to crystal_  
_< TigerAnchor> how does that even work_  
_< superliner> Miracles._  
_< TigerAnchor> that is a very helpful answer_  
_< TigerAnchor> thanks superliner_  
_< 9663996> [physics-textbook-in-the-trash.jpg]_  
_< 9663996> the real question you should be asking is: why _wouldn't _seeing someone beautiful turn you into crystal_ _  
_

\-- #cascadia, irc.nobilisers.net

* * *

Lionel's player had to drop out due to limited availability. So I just concluded he was dead. Everyone else then proceeds to hold a... is this even a funeral? Well, whatever it is.

Diane Spinnaker proceeds to steal the show.

Note that, as per Your Creation May Vary, my particular Diane Spinnaker is... not the best sort of person. This is because I am running Between The Lights with an underlying premise - a notional Campaign Convention, really - along the lines of "power cannot be taken by clean hands". You can portray Diane Spinnaker differently. You probably should.

This time, I am experimenting with adding more detail about what certain actions imply, so as to provide context for the detailed political stuff that will be happening here.

* * *

#### Oh

_< HG> Apparently, Lionel has died trying to put something somewhere that is extremely physically implausible.  
<HG> The Darklord Kethredamen says this with a straight face, insofar as one can have a straight face when your face is made of three lines and a circle.  
<Maddie> "I feel kind of bad saying this right after he died, but can I have his estate?"  
<Sonja> "Maddie!"  
<HG> Keith bites Maddie. It isn't particularly hard, but it's enough to mean that he's doing nothing of the sort._

So, considering Lionel is apparently just dead, they decide to hold a funeral in the way that the Powers of the Dark like to hold a funeral. Which is to say: a deathday party.

Okay then. Apparently they prepare for a deathday party. (I probably should have expected this. I didn't.)

For convenience, we decided to put the meeting with Diane Spinnaker at the deathday party, so as not to be too repetitive with the social visits and mixers and such.

#### An Entrance

The Familia Kethredamen is doing the usual sort of pre-gathering socializing, with the usual group of midrange Nobles and higher spirits that usually appear at their various balls. And then -

 _< HG> Diane makes an entrance. With an entourage. They are impeccably dressed and in perfect sync as they fan out and -  
<HG> Wait, those aren't Anchors or servants.  
<HG> Those are _actual Nobles _.  
<HG> You suddenly feel underdressed._

Diane's sheer social presence silences the room as she walks in. Well. The room, except for Familia Kethredamen. Maddie realizes this slightly too late. Sasha, on the other hand, knows precisely what she's doing.

 _< Maddie> Maddie tags Diane Spinnaker  
<Maddie> and then kind of holds her breath, waiting to see what she'll do  
<Maddie> "You're it," she explains, voice faltering  
<HG> She very calmly takes out a notepad and writes a single word on it.  
<HG> She puts the notepad away.  
<HG> "You were saying?"  
_ _< Sasha> Sasha straightens up the pin on her apron and tucks a strand of greasy hair behind her ear_  
_< Sasha> "Diane Spinnaker! Wonderful of you to come!"_  
_< Sasha> She smiles like a jackal_

Diane's Anchors go mix with the crowd. Sasha tells Maddie to keep an eye on them, so Maddie goes off to play various children's board games with one of those Anchors, a woman in a cape of raven-feathers. (She applies Aspect to playing those board games. So does raven-feathers. They end up in an escalating bid war of adding Strike to their Aspect miracles, which Maddie eventually wins.)

#### Machinations

Diane peels off to buttonhole Sonja. They have an exchange about this being Lionel's deathday party, and eventually Diane works her way around to the reason she is here:

 _< HG> "It is an ancient pact with the Imperators, from a time before the War, time beyond time, that Nobles may choose the Song that most calls them, and are not required to follow those of their Imperators. We continue to defend this pact, because it is very nearly impossible to force a Noble against their own conscience, and we do not want them to try.  
<HG> "And we will not just defend this pact against the Imperators. We also make it clear that those of a Familia are permitted to choose Songs of their own, without pressure from even their closest of celestial siblings."  
__< HG> "If..." She shoots a look back over her shoulder. "_Sasha _... gives you any trouble about it, let anyone know. Anyone at all."_

Diane Spinnaker has, very carefully, stated that she is willing to defend Sonja. More specifically, that Aliki's influence might interfere with Sonja making her own decisions about how to participate in Noble society. After all, the shadows of Aliki's political machinations continue to warp Society, and the way Society sees Familia Kethredamen, even after Aliki herself has disappeared.

To snatch one of "Aliki's" own familia out from under her nose - what a coup that would be! Of course, later events will make this attempted move entirely irrelevant. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Sasha, who has been eavesdropping on Diane's conversation with Sonja, concludes (not unreasonably) that Diane is making a veiled threat. She decides it's time to make a drastic move. So she summons Rhonda.

_< HG> Rhonda has mud-covered rubber gloves on. And mud-covered rubber boots.  
<HG> And when you summon her, she takes one look at the room and throws herself down on her knees in obeisance.  
<Sasha> "Hello Rhonda. Glad you could make it."  
<Sasha> Sasha continues grinning._

So, remember that bit where, when Diane came in with other Nobles as Anchors, it was a display of her strength and power? (I am, for these purposes, presuming that keeping another Noble anchored is exceptionally difficult, no matter how high your Treasure, because the real problem is keeping them subservient. A spontaneous bounceback from the state of Defeat could wrench an anchored Noble free, if they didn't want to be there.)

Sasha has just countered this with her own display of strength and power, by demonstrating that she too can Anchor another Noble. And that's a direct threat.

_< HG> Diane Spinnaker is, for quite possibly the first time that you have ever seen, speechless._

#### Sasha Speaks

Sasha climbs onto a table and opens her mouth. Her inherited social status silences the room. And then she begins talking.

 _< Sasha> "I'd like to ask you all what, precisely, the f--k we think we're doing scheming behind each other's backs like a gaggle of schoolgirls."  
<Sasha> "I heard Diane Spinnaker-- you all know Diane, right? I heard her reassuring my sister celestis, my good friend Sonja, that she and hers, whoever they might be, would protect her if _I _attempted to snatch her from Heaven."  
<Sasha> Sasha looks wounded. It's at least six percent genuine.  
<Sasha> "Why would I ever do that? Why should I _care _? Why should I allow such petty differences of Song drive a wedge between us?"  
<Sasha> "If you haven't forgotten, we are in the middle of a _War _. All Estates are vulnerable. By all indications, we are_ losing _."_

Sasha goes on a rather extensive rant about petty differences between Songs dividing society, and about how they ought to be uniting to fight the Valde Bellum. The room continues to be utterly silent, until Diane pulls one of her Anchors out of this shocked silence and towards herself.

 _< HG> He is next to Diane. "Bran," she whispers to him._  
_< HG> "I can't," he whispers back.  
_ _< HG> Diane Spinnaker puts her hand on the peacock-hatted man's shoulder. A meaningful look is exchanged between them._

Meanwhile, Sasha has decided that making a clean break between herself and Aliki might help everyone else realize that she's serious.

_< Sasha> Sasha takes a feather from the raven. The feather becomes a sword of black glass in her hand.  
<Sasha> A figure of flickering flame appears in front of her. Its details are indistinct. Its identity is unmistakable.  
<Sasha> Aliki.  
<Sasha> The figure puts its hand on her shoulder.  
<Sasha> The sword is through the figure. The raven croaks. A bell tolls. Aliki is smoke. She blows away in the wind.  
<Sasha> Treasure 7 Weaponization of the Raven to cut the bonds between Aliki and Sasha's identities._

She tells the Raven to sever the link between her and Aliki's identity.

#### Bran

An action has an equal, and opposite, reaction.

 _< HG> The man in the peacock-feather hat - Bran, she said he was? - is on the table, staring Sasha down. To her face.  
<HG> Wait, when did he become the one facing forwards, and Sasha the one with her back to the crowd?  
<HG> "You," says Bran, with the voice of the Society behind him, "are six months old. Many of us have been here for centuries. A few - " he gestures towards Soil's-Regal - "have been here for millenia."  
<HG> "_How dare you. _"  
<HG> The crowd begins to roar. He shushes them, with a single hand motion._

Sasha's stunt with the raven has not improved the standing of her arguments. It has, in fact, destroyed almost all of the social credit she was previously able to siphon from Aliki's memory.

Bran attempts to impress upon Sasha that she is not the first one to demand reform. She is not the first one to demand that the social fabric change, and that if Society hasn't bent for any of them, it won't bend for her, either. And he says that the Society has an essential use that nothing can replace.

 _< HG> "Lord Entropy's laws are _not enough _. The Living Society is how we confine blood feuds to the few individuals that started them. How we resolve arguments that will never otherwise cease. How we deal with_ those who have failed in their duty to the War _."  
<HG> "There is no mercy in the laws of the Darkest Lord. _We _are the ones who provide mercy and redemption."_

Sasha continues her expansive, profanity-laden rant about how the frivolous nonsense of the Society is heads stuck somewhere they don't belong.

_< Sasha> "Because maybe it looks grandiose and proper to you, but all I see is the same cliquish horses--t I've seen in every town, every country, everywhere I've ever been, mortal or immortal."_

At some point she realizes that maybe her phrasing has gone too far, and uses a Lesser Creation of Alienation to remove the mood of the message from the literal content.

#### Dirt

Most of the crowd accepts this miracle of Alienation. But one exception is a certain Noble of Soil. He has Wounded against this (in theory, in a notional manner, since he is an NPC), and is deeply offended by Sasha's insolence and her attempt to cover it up.

Sasha let Soil have seven baseless accusations against her honor. He uses one now.

 _< HG> "You _knowingly _aid the enemy."_

He accuses Sasha of being in league with the very Excrucians that she claims to be trying to rally Society to fight. But Sasha has no time to react, because Soil's-Regal buries every major individual involved - Diane's anchors, Sonja, and all - in a massive pile of dirt.

And in response, Sonja uses a Lesser Enchantment of Metaphors to make the dirt metaphorical.

After I recover from my shock and helpless laughter at the notion of turning the literal dirt into metaphorical dirt, most of the crowd leaves the party before anything else happens.

The most involved participants - Soil, Diane and her Anchors, and Familia Kethredamen - haven't left yet. But Maddie does have a mortal skill on her character sheet that is relevant to the situation. The skill is called "Kick Bite Wriggle Scream" (yes, really). Using it, she demands that these last stragglers leave the party. They comply.

_< HG> Soil throws up his hands and leaves.  
<HG> Diane Spinnaker's party just sorta... slides out the door. Politely.  
<HG> You are now alone._

In the aftermath: Sasha says something along the lines of "Well, I'd call that progress." Maddie believes that Sasha's speech was awesome. And Sonja is furious at Sasha for ruining her attempt to get closer to Noble society.

#### On The Next Episode...

A painting, a confrontation high above the Siberian tundra, and an emoji.


	8. Session 7: Tundra

_Slip your perception sideways and see the social fabric like those diagrams of star orbits from the Prosaic textbooks. Many collect in stable orbits around single charismatic individuals. Sometimes there are binary systems, or trinary ones; though in the long run these are unstable. Occasionally an Excrucian rogue planet spears through a planetary system, fatally wounding one and disarraying the others. Planetoids, comets, and moons, though almost never relevant, on occasion interfere with others and force themselves to be seen._ _  
_

_There are others of these diagrams that depict gravity as a rubber sheet. It is this frame of reference that most clearly throws into relief the true power of those most charismatic individuals, who warp perception and reality wherever they go._ _  
_

_To conclude this analogy, I can only hope I never see a black hole; for such a thing would fatally distort even me._ _  
_

\-- from the journals of Emmaline Kaur, Marchessa of Weaving

* * *

Sonja and Maddie bond. Sasha fails to escape the consequences of her actions.

Also, I accidentally inserted a Chuubo's Transition into a Nobilis game.

* * *

#### Further Shrieking

_< HG> After the party, there is almost certainly further shrieking to be had.  
<HG> Where are you?  
<HG> And are you in a screaming match with Sasha?_

Sonja leaves the argument before she further loses her temper, furious that her attempt to meet Diane Spinnaker was ruined by Sasha.

Maddie breaks off to follow her. She also acquires some ice cream on the way, as part of her budding plan to swipe the Estate of Ice Cream for herself. The offer of ice cream does not pacify Sonja. So they talk for a bit.

_< Maddie> "If she's worth impressing, she'll understand that it's not your fault."  
<Maddie> "And also she'll think Sasha's cool. Anyone who doesn't think Sasha's cool isn't worth worrying about, as far as I care."  
<Sonja> "Yeah but I care. That's the point, that I care even if the rest of you don't."  
<Maddie> "Sure, but I mean, if you care then that just means Spinnaker's cool enough to be worth caring about, and that means she'll like Sasha... but I guess that's not really the point, is it."  
<Maddie> "Why don't we help you make something cool to show off? You angel types like art and stuff, right?"_

Maddie suggests that they make a piece of art about how actually, ice cream is the same thing as fog. Then she offers Sonja some paint that is made out of fog. (This is a Lesser Motion of Fog, making a handful of fog into something you can paint with. It's still fog, it just happens to have paintlike properties now.) They work together in making the ice-cream-fog painting.

#### Meanwhile, In Siberia

Sasha has fled to Siberia. This would be a great place to flee to, if not for the fact that Nobles can go anywhere they damn well please. So someone finds Sasha. Someone with a figure-obscuring coat and a string of sled dogs shows up next to her.

_< Sasha> Sasha is sipping a Big Gulp ™ and lounging on a desk chair  
<Sasha> In the middle of Siberia. It's fine.  
<HG> The individual methodically proceeds to ignore Sasha and make camp._

Sasha asks the Raven who this is. The society replies that this is the Saint of Punctuation.

_< HG> It is at this point that she unpins one of her cloaks and stakes it out to dry over the fire.  
<HG> A Robber-and-Raven sigil glitters in the oncoming dark.  
<HG> She sits near the fire, and deliberately, methodically, turns her head to Sasha.  
<HG> "What the f---," she says._

Sasha is evasive. So the Saint of Punctuation decides to break the stalemate.

_< HG> She drops her Guise. Not the Unblemished Guise, that would be pointless around you, but the one that allows one to blend in with the local population.  
<HG> Her furs are from impossible and extinct animals. Her sled-dogs are a set of vultures. The Raven pin that serves as the button for her cloak is not some cheap nickel pewter, but obsidian set in polished silver.  
<HG> The Saint of Punctuation is no longer silhouetted by the fire.  
<HG> She has an emoji for a face._

#### White Fire

Despite being confronted with the fact that the Saint of Punctuation has a Unicode character where her face should be, Sasha continues to not say anything of use. (Also, Maddie's player decides that Maddie-in-character ought to see what's going on, so Maddie decides to use her Lesser Incarnation of Bad Weather Gift to figure out where Sasha is.)

 _< HG> Punctuation's eyes flick abruptly to the sky, a storyboarded animation without enough tweens. "Your actions have consequences. You did not merely slander yourself. You have tarnished the reputation of the Ravens as a whole."  
__< Sasha>_ _Sasha shrugs. "Blame Aliki. It was her piss-poor decision that got me in this position."_  
_< HG> "And then you kept digging."_

Sasha is still of some status in the Society of Flowers... because she siphoned off the social credit of all Ravens, Robber and non-Robber alike. Punctuation is here to tell her that the Ravens are disowning all her future actions. Sasha says that it's Aliki's fault for shoving the job on _her_ , as opposed to someone with more social puissance. And adds that if they're so desperate to get her out of the way, they should just bump her off now.

So Punctuation now does what she was sent to do. She snaps her fingers and attempts to eject Sasha from the Robber's Order. It doesn't work, because Sasha's player decides to prevent the ejection of Sasha from the Robbers by taking a Deadly Wound.

_< Sasha> Something ancient and angry burns in Sasha's gut. White fire lights up her eyes and spills from her mouth down her face. The majesty of something so much more than her, the light of the Noble heart she devoured, is welling up in her, too grand and too beautiful not to leave scars.  
<Sasha> Sasha staggers, but around the white fire she gives Punctuation that jackal grin she's so used to seeing on Aliki's face. "Just who the hell do you think I am?"_

The precise wording of the Wound's Affliction is: [That which is mine cannot be taken by force.]

_< HG> The Saint of Punctuation cannot blink. She can, however, gape. Which she does for half a moment.  
<HG> And then she settles into a snarl. "You can convince everyone else that you are Aliki. But you cannot convince yourself."_

#### About Spinnaker

The Saint of Punctuation then attempts to leave, taking her sled and vultures up into the sky. But Sasha, still having access to the treasures of the Robbers, borrows a set of wings from the Robber's Order (a level 7 Miracle of Treasure), leaps into the sky, and catches up with her.

_< Sasha> "Do you know what I'd do to you, if I were like Diane Spinnaker?"  
<HG> The Saint of Punctuation dismisses her vultures and steps off her sled. Her own cloak holds her aloft, rippling in the wind. "Do I care?"  
<Sasha> "You should."_

Punctuation has demonstrated that the Society is perfectly willing to disarm one of their own in an attempt to maintain the social order. And Sasha has reason to believe that she is not the only one. (Which I will explain in a moment.) Sasha has decided that this state of affairs is unacceptable. She goes on an extensive monologue, concluding with this:

_< Sasha> "So when we're living in a society that's at war for our very existence, doing bulls--t tea parties and [politicking] instead of fighting the enemy, and anyone with the fifth of a testacle required to mention that that might not be perfectly f--ing sustainable gets blacklisted from everything in the f--ing planet, you understand why I might feel a little galled."_

To punctuate this point, Sasha has one more statement. In this game, none with power have clean hands. And in the previous session, Sasha gained some social dirt on several individuals, including Diane Spinnaker. She has found, in this dirt, that Spinnaker destroyed her Anchors, scoured them to the soul, and then rebuilt them to a form more useful for her purposes.

Punctuation demands proof.

 _< HG> "If you are speaking the truth, right here, right now: The Sigil of the Ravens is a gateway to oracle and truth. Give it your blood and I will give it mine; and we will see if anyone has ever said this true to the great temples of the order."  
<HG> She takes a ritual dagger out. She makes a slice across her palm. Her blood dribbles out, freezing into droplets in the cold Siberian wind.  
<HG> She offers Sasha the blade.  
<Sasha> Sasha takes the knife, responds. Fire licks her palm, cooking the blood that seeps out.  
<HG> Punctuation holds her bloodied hand to the sigil upon her throat. "Tell us, O Raven, of the deeds of Diane Spinnaker. _ _This tale of her sword, and her Anchors, and her will to shape others like clay: is it true?_ _"_  
_< Sasha> Sasha Konstanian grasps a cheap vinyl pin on a stained apron with a hand that burns white fire. Her hand trembles.  
_ _< Sasha> "Tell us, O Raven, of the deeds of Diane Spinnaker. Is what I have said about her true?"_

#### A Vision

_A woman kneels in front of Diane Spinnaker, in an age past. Her dress glitters like sand, her face pale as seafoam upon the tide._

_Diane Spinnaker speaks. "If you truly wish to serve me, if you will throw your dignitas behind mine, there is one more thing I need for you to do."_

_"Yes, my Lady?"_

_Diane Spinnaker raises her sword._

_The woman clad in the white sand beach trembles, then lowers her head in acceptance._

_"Heaven invades," intones Spinnaker, her eyes closed in reverence:_

_And she brings the sword down._

#### And Afterwards

Sasha and the Saint of Punctuation are thousands of feet above the Siberian tundra, and they are falling. Sasha uses a high-level Intention to protect Punctuation from the fall damage. So Punctuation is, indeed, unharmed. She is unharmed because the fall shattered most of Sasha's bones. (She's Immortal. It's fine.) Punctuation carries them both away with her sled and vultures.

Meanwhile, remember that Maddie was looking at the whole scene through an Incarnation? She thinks that what Sasha did is insanely cool. The white fire, especially, appeals to Maddie's continued quest to find the Forbidden Alphabet (which is, apparently, magic words made of fire). So Maddie decides that the appropriate response is to attempt to eat matches. If she's got matches inside herself, then maybe she can use them to breathe fire? It doesn't work, of course. 

Later on, Sonja receives a card sent via Sasha-anchor. Inside it is an apology.

#### On The Next Episode...

Well, the next one isn't really a session. It's more of a minisession. But Sasha talks some more with Toby Houston.


	9. Minisession 7.5: Liana

Most of the players weren't available for this particular day, so instead of a full session I just did a single scene with the player who was available. It's a bit in the home of Toby Houston and Saint Punctuation.

* * *

#### Locus Liana

_< HG> Sasha, having shattered almost everything, wakes up to a polygonal ceiling. Toby Houston is there. He is sitting on a hovering disc in the air. "You know, I didn't think we'd be meeting again quite this way."_

Toby Houston and the Saint of Punctuation share a home-Chancel, Locus Liana. This is what Sasha wakes up to. Despite being unable to communicate physically, Sasha's Treasure allows her to just text Toby, thus allowing her to talk (?) to him.

_< HG> He makes a motion that is almost but not quite slipping a hand into a pocket. Which is odd, since the pants he is wearing have no pockets. Or stitching. Nevertheless, the motion somehow puts a phone in his hand.  
<HG> He looks at it; pulls a thumbtack out and pins his phone display to the air. He puts away the rest of the phone. "There's something you haven't told me."  
<HG> "The Saint looked at me strangely when she was dragging you in. And left. Haven't seen her since."_

Technically, I didn't describe Locus Liana in this particular scene, I explained it later. But I may as well put it here, since it's where this scene is set. Locus Liana is a videogame. It's a bit like the mutant baby of Second Life and Skyrim, with all of the graphics and physics weirdness that entails.

Anyway...

#### The Pure Ones

Sasha begins this conversation by saying that she knows about Diane Spinnaker's secret. Toby responds that it isn't exactly a secret, and that everyone with power has skeletons in their closet. So Sasha asks what Toby's particular closet skeleton is. He doesn't reply to that; instead, he discusses the limitations of his own role: the Pure are bound to an oath, to only intervene in a specific type of circumstance.

_< HG> "Why do you think it is so difficult to find us Pure Ones? A certain level of abstention from power is necessary to maintain the potency of our souls."  
<Sasha> [You think you don't wield power w/ your purity? Maybe it's incidental to some sort of spiritual cleanliness you're striving for but you can't deny that you HAVE it.]  
<HG> "Indirectly. And only about the very few issues that we each cherish most of all."_  
_< HG> "The Applebearer binds herself to only speak about falsehoods. Jessamine may only intervene at the attempted forging of a weapon that would kill the wielder."_

Toby Houston is not an exception to this rule. He can only express an opinion when he is specifically asked about it; this means that he cannot actively police the behavior of the Digital Cleave. He is occasionally invited to make a final ruling on an irreconcilable difference, but is otherwise unable to intervene. Sasha does not think that this pure bound oath thing is a good excuse, because the opinions he does express are given disproportionate social weight.

At this point, Toby Houston waxes lyrical about his observations on the Noble nature. Every Noble that pursues a path of self-transformation must turn away from the mortal perspective, and turning away from the mortal perspective destroys the reason that Imperators recruit Nobles in the first place: the ability to engage with the Excrucians in isolated incidents and brief battles.

_< HG> "Cutting oneself all the way loose, pursuing any agenda to the extremes that only the Nobilis may, destroys the part of you that is able to think on the timescale of impulse and pain."  
<HG> "It applies to the most Pure. It applies to the most Meritorious. It applies, even, to those who are Immortal."  
<HG> "If you work too hard you become Imperial."_

And why is this relevant, asks Sasha? Is that the problem?

 _< HG> "I don't _know _. That's the problem. I don't know what it is that makes the pursuit of power intrinsically corruptive. I don't know how the luminaries of the Society of Flowers manage to devote themselves to power for power's sake."  
<HG> "And the path I take means that I will never, ever know what that is like."_

Toby Houston looked up, and realized that continuing on the path of Purity - just like continuing on the path of status in the Society of Flowers - would prevent him from fighting in the War that is every Noble's duty. So he stopped.

#### The Heart of the Rot

_< Sasha> [so you think the heart of the rot is that we pursue power?]_

Toby Houston is at the limit of his knowledge. All he can say is that this is not the work of the Kings, despite what the Raven originally suggested.

_< HG> "These are not the fingerprints of the Kings. Those develop much faster. Like flames, not rust."_

Sasha realizes, at this point, that the Raven's knowledge, too, is incomplete. It is a representation of the collective consciousness of the Accords. It is not just informed by the court of public opinion: it _is_ the court of public opinion. And that's why it told Sasha that the problem was an external force, rather than intrinsic to the structure of the Society itself.

Sasha starts thinking aloud about how the Society is divided by crisscrossing borders and factions, songs and familia and cleaves, and briefly suggests that the Excrucians might not have these problems. Toby Houston immediately shoots this impression down: the Excrucians, too, have internal arguments.

_< HG> "The Unclean Kings speak not to the Liberation of Night. Those who wish nothing more than to storm Heaven's gates and relive their glory days do not agree with those who work on sawing off the branches one by one."_  
_< Sasha> [so what, this f--ing factionalism is just a property of being a thing with a mind?]_  
_< Sasha> [you know what]  
<Sasha> [even if it is so, im going to make it not so]_

Sasha decides that this is a terrible state of affairs. She wants to unify the Society of Flowers, and she will do so even if it's impossible. Especially if it's impossible.

Toby Houston excuses himself, because his instinct is to shoot down any such ambitions.

_< HG> Toby gets up. He unpins his phone display. He pockets his seating-disc, into the same unknown that everything else he has has disappeared into.  
<HG> There is a recorded sound of a door closing._

#### Later

(This incident was technically in a different session, but I'm going to put it here because it's more conceptually related to this session than to that one.)

Toby Houston has called in the Duke of Epidemiology to unpowder Sasha's bones.

During this procedure, Houston and Epidemiology both realize that Sasha is Immortal.

#### On The Next Episode...

A failed attempt at a bribe. Also, Ancient Grome.


	10. Session 8: Honesty

_It is not uncommon for those newly inducted into Nobility to adopt the same social roles as their predecessors and siblings-caelestis. The Nobles from Familia Liana, the “Faceless Familia”, are drawn to roles that surrender their self to a greater cause: Curators, Falling Stars, Functionaries Magister. The members of Familia Vitex are invariably martial Nobles, some of the very best to call in when you need assistance in a straight fight against an Excrucian._ _  
_

_There is much speculation about where these tendencies come from. Imperial bias in choosing Nobles? The influence of the Estate? Peer pressure from the rest of their Familia? Probably it is all of these things._ _  
_

\-- “Celestial Siblings” by Khalil M., from _Two Worlds, Two Wars_ , a zine printed in 1992 by the Australian Nobilisers’ Society

* * *

Today, a social mixer featuring Sonja and Maddie. They make some contacts. I also indulge my personal interest in how alien Noble morality can become.

#### Meeting-Room

Among other things, Locus Kethredamen is a neutral meeting ground for Nobles, with specially designed rooms that preserve the privacy of the individuals who are having each meeting. It is one of the duties of the Nobles of Kethredamen to maintain and staff these rooms when they are required, and prevent any real fights from starting. Sonja and Maddie begin the session by doing so. The involved parties are Ariane Lambert, Saint of Scheduling, and Sunstorm, Power of Bells. (The shape, not the instrument. Sunstorm doesn't deal in noise. This becomes relevant in a moment.)

 _< HG> The usual preparations: make sure to sweep the meeting-hall itself with the Sight to ensure no hidden traps have been placed, stand ready at two separate doors to receive the disputants, let them in, stand outside to ensure nothing happens.   
<HG> You do not enter the room, and it has been miraculously warded so that recognizable speech (or other form of communication) does not filter out. You are, by tradition, not allowed to know precisely what happens there, and are not supposed to mediate in the actual disputes. But you do make sure that, should a full fight break out, you're close enough to intervene._ _  
_

The meeting descends (ascends?) into shouting. Maddie pounds on the door ("menacingly", apparently) to remind them of the no-fighting rule. This works for a few minutes. Then it doesn't work.

_< HG> The furniture is designed like tuning-forks, so that each piece has a distinct pitch: thus if, say, a chair is being thrown against a wall, you can tell whose it is.  
<HG> This is how you know whose chair is being thrown against the wall where.  
<HG> It is being thrown across the room._

Maddie decides that now is the time to kick the door in.

 _< Maddie> "If you two can't act more mature than _I _am, I'm going to have to throw you out."_

She finds Ariane, who threw the chair, and is not contrite in the least. And Sunstorm, who has lost the argument, and is now looking for the mediator that (by tradition) Familia Kethredamen does not provide. Sunstorm looks to Sonja, looks to Maddie, finds no sympathetic audience, and leaves.

#### A Bribe

Maddie tells Ariane off for "disrespect[ing] our sacred meeting ground". It is traditional to tell the Society that such things have happened, and dent the aggressor's social status. (If this was Eclipse Phase, I would describe it as dinging her rep.) Ariane attempts to stop Maddie from doing this, by offering a bribe instead.

_< HG> "I have something you want," Ariane says, evenly. "A little birdie told me that you want words of power."  
<HG> It's a bribe._

Maddie's attempts to find the Forbidden Alphabet, words of fire and magic, have not gone unnoticed. But as Ariane is offering to take Maddie to the rare Firebreathers, Sonja gets suspicious about Maddie lingering in the room without Sunstorm.

_< Sonja> By this point her "Maddie has a bad idea" alarm is buzzing in her head. She steps back inside. "Are we finished here?" she asks.  
<Maddie> "Sunstorm's given up on the negotiations. And it seems I might have business with this troublemaker."  
<Sonja> "Maddie," Sonja says warningly. "I know that look. Whatever you're up to, no."_

Maddie tries telling Ariane to take the social dent and _then_ lead Maddie to the Firebreathers. But even when Maddie points out that Ariane is casting aspersions on her character by presuming that she'd take a bribe, and demands recompense for this, Ariane does not care. As Maddie calls up the Society to report Ariane's transgression, Ariane stalks out of the Chancel and slams the door behind herself.

Sonja proposes getting ice cream. Maddie attempts to create ice cream. She fails, because she has the Estate of Fog, not the Estate of Ice Cream. They go get some from Sasha's 7-11 instead.

#### Locus Laodan

There is a low key mixer of mostly Heavenfolk (not an actual high dress ball, though obviously some people are going there in fancy gowns anyway because they're fun) located in Acadia West's home, Locus Laodan. It also happens to contain someone from Scheduling's familia, because Maddie wanted to investigate them.

Sonja halfheartedly attempted to tell Maddie not to go. Maddie overrode her. Sonja gave up on it.

 _< HG> Locus Laodan is two cities that were taken out of time, Enchanceled, and forgotten. One was from ancient Greece. One was from ancient Rome. Over the millenia since, they grew into each other, and hybridized.  
_ _< HG> (Locus Laodan's example is why modern works of art and writing often decide that Greece and Rome are basically the same thing and can be mixed and matched randomly.)  
_ _< HG> Mostly, the architecture is that of a Roman city. Streets well paved with close-fit bricks. Squat smooth houses, set well above the ground so that underground fireplaces can provide under-floor heating. A lovely hall, mosaic walls, surprisingly brightly painted statues.  
_ _< HG> There is a spread on a sideboard: grapes, honey-cakes, venison, tofu.  
_ _< HG> Acadia West meets you at the marble-columned entrance.  
_ _< HG> He is wearing a toga. A wide ribbon of purple runs along one edge of it._

(Maddie decides to continue to be facepalm-worthy, and decides to go in costume as a clockwork automaton. And then pretend to be a clockwork automaton. She keeps up this act for a surprisingly long time.)

There are a few other familiar faces here. Lord Fruit is present. As is the horse.

_< HG> The horse is also in a toga. I don't know how that works. Can horses even wear togas? Nevertheless, that's precisely what you see._

Sonja goes to find Lord Fruit, and gets introductions to a number of other people, who I don't describe so that I can add NPCs later.

Maddie peels off to go find that other person who is also in Scheduling's familia. She finds Jackie Yu, the Marchessa of Meal Replacements.

_< HG> Jackie is wearing an updo. It looks like a spray of miniature grapes is arranged around the updo, until you look closer. It is actually made of dog kibble.  
<HG> Points for being in-theme, I guess._

Maddie pretends to be a robot. Jackie is extremely unimpressed, so Maddie drops the act and introduces herself (using a bit of her Skill, Lies and Dirty Tricks) as a starstruck kid who wants to make friends. Jackie lets it slide. Maddie has no intention of pressing her on Ariane and her shenanigans today, and gets Jackie to agree to come to her next yearly spelling bee. Which is in a month. (This is something like three objective months after the previous one. But it's always on Maddie's birthday, and birthdays are by definition yearly. So it works because Maddie says so.)

#### Honesty

Sonja looks for people who have dirt on her. She underspecifies this miracle, in a brief hilarious misunderstanding (which is IC, and which I let slide because it costs 0MP anyway), until she remembers that everyone has read her book, and knows what she did from there.

_< Sonja> Not seeing many other familiar faces, Sonja makes use of the Sight again. Let's see if anyone is here that was present for the dirt incident.  
<Sonja> Persona 0 sight to see who has metaphorical dirt on her.  
<Sonja> The fact that this might render false positives doesn't enter her mind.  
<HG> Oh, about... 50% of the hall glows._  
_< HG> Mind you, much of the dirt is "I've read your book"  
<HG> and thus relatively harmless  
<HG> But a lot of them do know that you have a sore spot or two about being needled about [noodle incident]._

She tries again, looking for people who have _recent_ dirt on her. There's a random unspecified NPC or two, and also Acadia West, who immediately spots her.

_< Sonja> "Good to see you again, Dominus," she says. She uses an Aspect 0 miracle to keep her expression from giving anything away.  
<HG> That's not enough, against Acadia. Who can see the truth.  
<Sonja> ...Let's just say Sonja didn't think that far ahead._

Acadia pulls Sonja aside to a back corridor. He says he was involved in the dirt incident. He then says he didn't do it on purpose. (I'm just going to state now that he really _didn't_ do it on purpose. This isn't a trick.)

They are in Locus Laodan, Acadia West's home. Acadia West is the Power of Truth. Sonja has not actually learned the Laodan honesty rites, so he uses one of his Persona miracles to approximate the effect. Sonja('s player) lets him.

 _< HG> He closes his eyes. Takes a deep breath. Makes the very same hand-motion that Toby Houston did, when declaring the Laodan honesty rites.  
_ _< HG> He attempts a different hand motion in Sonja's general direction. With it comes a Lesser Enchantment of Truth, via the property "Truth moves the mind, not the heart": with the intention of making it possible to have a clear and rational discussion with Sonja about how this is clearly not rational.  
_ _< Sonja> I'm willing to take that, no wound_

Then he reveals the dirt he has on Sonja: that Sonja doesn't fully follow the Song of Heaven. Sonja describes her ethos. She wants to reveal everyone's flaws to everyone else, thus showing them a real motivation to change those flaws.

_< Sonja> "Our imperfections aren't skeletons to be shoved in a closet. I think if people knew other peoples' flaws a bit better, they might be more willing to actually work on them instead of trying even harder to pretend that they don't exist."  
<Sonja> "Whether people recognize it or not, it's for their own good."_

Acadia doesn't object to the notion of imposing morality upon people for their own good. That's just Heaven. What he objects to is the notion that people would be _willing_ to change.

#### The Gate

Acadia has something else to say to Sonja. It's about her Song.

_< HG> Acadia West turns his head away from Sonja and towards the party, expressionless. "Many Powers do not proceed all the way down the lengths of their Songs. Many Powers never will. But it is the nature of Heaven that you must always strive and struggle to become better."_  
<HG> "And perhaps you are trying to define 'better' in your own way. I will not deny you that. If your intention is pure, if you chase beauty, you may become one of our foremost. If you continue on your current route... that route may become closed to you."  
<HG> "The Angels at the Gates turn away all those whose souls are not pure enough to enter. 'Go, and make your world better', they say. 'Make yourself better.' And the Powers of Heaven are the same." 

The fact that she does not follow the canonical Song of Heaven could be a permanent ceiling on her social prospects. He knows this because once upon a time, he found himself with his face pressed up against that beautiful metaphorical crystal ceiling, unable to become anything more than a follower. And perhaps most Nobles never become anything more than followers. Many do not wish to. But he wanted to, and nobody ever gave him the chance.

_< Sonja> Sonja is silent for a moment. She has many things in that moment that she wants to say. Accusations of unfairness, discrimination, hubris, but she holds her tongue. After that moment has passed, she looks up at Dominus Truth with a determined expression. "Then tell me what should I do, who I should learn from. Tell me who can judge the purity of my intentions, of my pursuit of beauty and justice. I'm doing this, I'm here because I believe in these things, even if my understanding is a bit different from everyone else's. I will be better, this I swear."_

Sonja declares that she wants to be better, wants to know how to determine if her intentions are pure, wants to know who to learn from.

Acadia agrees to send the word along, for someone else to find her.

Then he leaves.

#### On The Next Episode...

We get to see the inside of one of those meeting-rooms.


	11. Session 9: Sacrifice

_The idiom "a black swan" once meant something that could never happen. Then they found a black swan, so it now means an exceptionally rare but present possibility. This is what taught me that consensus reality is malleable._

\-- _The Other Side of Reality_ by Caitlin Katsaros

* * *

Today, a fateful meeting is interrupted. And we get a reminder that Maddie has been a Noble longer than both Sasha and Sonja put together. (Although this doesn't mean quite as much as you would think; Sasha and Sonja are both relatively new Nobles. But still.)

#### Tying Up A Loose End

Still finishing up the end of the social event from the previous entry, Maddie becomes tentative early friends with Jackie Yu. There was probably small talk involved there somewhere, but we both agreed to skip it, since roleplaying small talk isn't particularly interesting.

Sonja meets up with Maddie, and they discuss what happened. Sonja is contemplative about her future. Maddie, well...

Even though Maddie is perpetually thirteen, this does not mean that she is _young_. She knows how politics work. And so she has been trying to get social leverage on Jackie, so that she can eventually get revenge on Ariane.

_< Maddie> "She's coming to the second Annual Spelling Bee!"  
<Maddie> There's a wicked gleam in Maddie's eye.  
<Sonja> "Oh gods, Maddie..." Sonja pinches the bridge of her nose.  
<Maddie> "I'm not using her for anything direct yet. I need to build up ties to her stronger than Ariane's, and that means avoiding anything that might alienate her until she's already mine."_

After a bit more banter, both of them go home.

#### Letter

Sasha sends Acadia West a letter, proposing that they quietly form an association of Nobles - i.e. a faction to oppose factionalism. Both Sasha and her player are fully aware of this irony.

Acadia West proposes that they talk in one of Locus Kethredamen's private meeting-rooms. Which is a reasonable request, since there's one of him and three of the PCs. They file in, and seal themselves into the Auctoritas.

_< HG> The room is, unlike almost everything else in your Chancel, relatively barren. Oh, sure, there are the usual mahogany-paneled walls, and lush carpeting with intricate designs, and filigree brass furniture: but the lighting is recessed into the wall behind panels of diamond, and there are only enough chairs and tables for the four of you.  
<HG> Haul the aegis-slab into place to bar the door: and begin._

Acadia West then reveals that he continued looking through the metaphorical dirt he found in the back of his mind, and has the deepest, darkest secrets of everyone involved. Everyone involved includes himself. And what does he find?

That the existence of Truth has shattered before his eyes.

_< HG> "I'm not real. Truth is not real. I belong to a Mimic Imperator."  
<HG> His expression is entirely too serene for this situation, but that's clearly because he's sustaining a miracle on himself so as not to break down._

Sasha impulsively hugs him. Maddie glares impassively. Sonja offers a hand. 

Acadia West further explains: despite having what he now knows to be a Mimic Estate, he is not knowingly a traitor to Creation. But if he found this in the metaphorical dirt, it's very likely that some of the others found this in the metaphorical dirt too. And Soil's-Regal had accused Sasha of being in league with the Excrucians.

_< HG> "So, if you want me to help you? Let me take the fall for you. Tell them I bewitched you. I have no Estate to guard, no reputation to ruin."  
<Maddie> "You didn't, though."  
_< HG> "Does that matter? Truth doesn't exist."__

Acadia West offers himself as a scapegoat, to erase the stain of Sasha being accused of treason. The Familia immediately collectively refuses to let him sacrifice himself.

They think about ways in which they could, in theory, redeem the existence of an Estate. Sasha realizes that she knows someone _else_ who has been bound into redemption. She attempts to call Rhonda with a Treasure miracle, only to realize that the meeting-room itself has a massive Auctoritas to prevent interference. Most mortal actions are still entirely capable of passing through, but no miracles.

_< HG> It would hardly be a good meeting room if anyone could just listen in, right?_

So Sasha decides to just text Rhonda, in the ordinary fashion, to ask her to come over.

#### Vien

Rhonda does come over, but she has someone else in tow.

_< HG> You recognize the voice of one of the individuals involved as being Diane's anchor in the cape of raven feathers, from the First Annual Locus Kethredamen Spelling Bee. The other is Rhonda.  
<HG> "And where do you think you're going?" shouts the feathered one._

Sasha opens the door. I name raven-feathers Vien, because to talk about her as "raven-feathers" would get very unwieldy very quickly. Vien, then, is clutching Rhonda's ear, furious. Acadia tries to melt into the woodwork, but he needn't have bothered, because Vien isn't focused on him at all.

 _< HG> She glares right back at Sasha. "Your _associate _here failed to fulfill a certain duty."_  
_< Sasha> "Do you want to tell me what that is, or are you just going to passive-agressively beat around the bush in my own Chancel?"  
<HG> "She failed the clause that Snakes must do no harm. She defeated Heat. She reached in and permanently warped his personality. And then she Anchored him."  
<HG> You suddenly remember Spinnaker, and a certain sword.  
<HG> "The only reason we have not immediately put her to death is because you are her sponsor, and apparently _that which is yours cannot be taken by force _."_

Vien accuses Rhonda of having warped Heat and taken him as an Anchor, in a way that may sound suspiciously familiar because it was what Spinnaker did. Rhonda doesn't deny it. Sasha is furious.

_< HG> Rhonda only shrugs. "She did it. Why can't I?"  
<Sasha> "Because we are not her, Rhonda."  
<Sasha> "We represent a new morality, a new generation of Noble that doesn't bend to that sort of petty horseshit."  
<Sasha> "Put him back."  
<HG> Rhonda looks sullen. "Kill me yourself if you're so insistent."_

Sasha finds some scissors, but Sonja is actually rather good at making inspiring speeches about finding less violent solutions to problems. (You know, being a book protagonist and all that.) This stops Sasha short.

_< Sonja> "We can do better than this. I know we can."  
<Sasha> Sasha halts her scissors in nebulous mid-motion. "You're right."_

Sasha demands that Rhonda confess everything and submit herself to the tender mercies of the Locust Court. Vien drags her away.

This act, sacrificing Rhonda in service of her morals, counts as breaking Sasha's Bond with Rhonda. So she takes a Wound for it: _[You feel guilty about it. But, like, more than usual.]_

 _< Maddie> "...this is a problem. We just lost a major asset."_  
_< Maddie> "So now I'm starting to wonder, are we being sabotaged?"  
<Sasha> "Yes."  
<Sasha> "But this sacrifice is not in vain."  
__< Sasha>_ _"We... put this piece in this position to gain... to gain s--"_  
_< Sasha> Sasha covers her mouth with her hands and screams._

#### Power

_< HG> "I... would like to continue that conversation we were having," says Acadia, in a very small voice. "Unless this isn't a good time."_

They file back into the meeting-room and bolt the door. The PCs ask Acadia if he knows how to find out who did this. But he points out that they already have the answer: everyone in power.

Sasha asks the Raven to name all those who have the highest offices of power.

 _< Sasha> "Raven," Sasha says horsely, "who do I blame for this? Who do I need to punish for it."_  
_< Maddie> "There's not going to be any one 'who', is there?"_   
_< HG> "The Council of the Light. Cheshire of the Dark. Koirala of Hell. Spinnaker of Heaven. I can keep going."_

After they stop the Raven from spending the next twenty minutes giving them more names and biographies, there is a brief digression about the Wild being absent from this list - apparently, the "absolute egocentricity" thing makes most of them loners, and even those in the Society carve their own niches rather than trying to gather followers. Sasha files this away, to investigate further later.

 _< HG> "Many of the Wild who join Society are Functionaries, answering a call to do unique things that would otherwise be left undone." The Raven bobs its head. "You could start asking there."  
<Sasha>_ _"We could rally them, maybe. They could be made to see that they have a rational self-interest to be served by throwing their lots in with us."_

Then the meeting gets back to the core point: the problem is the Rot, the problem is factionalism, the problem is Society, and Sasha threatens them all.

_< Sasha> "If we're pissing off that many people -" Sasha says. There is a grin on her face. It doesn't really seem to belong to her. "we're doing something right."_

#### Sword

From this point of focused destiny, from this moment when she decides that she will in fact fight the entirety of Society, Sasha creates a _res_. It's - actually, you know what? It's too epic of a moment to compress into a summary.

 _< Sasha> Sasha takes a deep breath. The fire that has burned behind her eyes glows behind cracks in her skin, tinges her white. The slow, rolling power that has been building in her since the night at the ball has reached a critical point. The process begun when she slew her own shadow, when she proclaimed her independence from Aliki, is coming to an end. She has seen what her dream will cost. She has seen the risks she will have to take to change the world.  
<Sasha> Sasha takes off her Robber's Sigil. She pries the pin from its back. The pin becomes a sword, a delicate thing. She thrusts the New Society forward in a dramatic flourish that has become unfortunately common for her.  
<HG> And equally, even as the pin grows into a tiny sword, a sword drawn from the vaults of the Robber's Order issues from Sasha's heart, the basket hilt of snakes iridescent, the blade banded and swirled like Damascus steel.  
<HG> Name the blade and grasp it. It shall be yours.  
<Sasha> "...I am a Power of the Dark. I believe humans are most beautiful when they are dying to express themselves, to claim what they want, to be HEARD in a voice that cannot be drowned out."  
<Sasha> "I name you, the beautiful face of the world we will make, the body of the covenant that will topple the Songs, topple the Kingmakers, topple the Locust Court-- Revolution, the shouting and the bleeding of a million voices."  
<HG> It is done._  
_< Sasha> "...Holy s--t that worked."  
<Maddie> "Ooooh, it's pretty!"  
<Sonja> Sonja covers her mouth in sheer awe at what she's seeing. She's seen a fair few swords in her time and this one is _beautiful _._  
_< HG> Acadia West, who is still there by the way, watches, mesmerized. "Can I touch it?"  
<Sasha> Sasha holds Revolution in her hands with a grim determination. "Do you mean to pledge yourself to the new world?"  
<Sasha> "This is not a toy, this is not a piece of art. This is a promise I have made Creation."  
<HG> Acadia reaches out, slowly, entranced. He touches the flat of the blade. A jolt of electricity arcs down his arm as he pulls his hand away.  
<HG> He looks at his fingers. A tiny lightning scar in the shape of a sword marks the thumb of his right hand.  
<HG> "S--t."_

#### On The Next Episode...

Flowers, a web, and the cutting of hair.


	12. Session 10: Web

_The drawers contained nothing but spoons. Thousands upon thousands of them. Tablespoons, soup-spoons, demitasse spoons, dessert spoons, caviar spoons, melon ballers, ladles, sporks._  
  
_She picked the largest one up, put it to her sodden whetstone, and began the hundred-hour process of slowly sharpening it into a knife._

\-- _Sunstories_ , by Carol Paresi

* * *

Today, different people have different perspectives on the Society of Flowers. As they have always had. But this time, the PCs ask.

#### Rumor

_< HG> Outside your door is a single stalk of hollyhock wrapped in oleander (beware ambition).  
<HG> Oh._

Immediately after the Revolution thing, there is a knock (?) at the door. They find a flower. Everyone immediately knows what's up. Which is to say Rumor. Rumor has a few rather pointed things to say about the situation. (Or, um, to flower about the situation, since they don't talk?)

 _< Maddie> Is anyone in evidence outside?  
<HG> Rumor's right there in an armchair, twirling an aster around their fingers. Patience. They've been waiting here the entire time.  
<Sonja> "Is this an attempt at intimidation?" Sonja crosses her arms and stands up a bit straighter.  
<HG> A single tuft of bindweed drops from Rumor's fingers. _Well, maybe.

There's just one problem: that meeting-room is a secured and highly warded location. Just last session, even Sasha, a Noble of Locus Kethredamen and therefore one of the few people that should have been allowed to cast miracles out of it, found her miracle crashing directly into its Auctoritas. And yet, here Rumor is, having clearly spied on their conversation!

 _< Maddie> "Be five percent less cryptic, please."  
<HG> A shrug, a striped carnation. _I can't.

It is here that Sonja realizes that she has a relevant power. A quick Lesser Divination of Metaphor, and the meaning of Rumor's words become clear. Or, as clear as Rumor is ever going to be, at least. The PCs then ask some rather more pointed questions, and the answers come: Rumor is not here as anyone's representative. This is their opinion, and their opinion alone. And what is Rumor's opinion?

 _< HG> A full bouquet, for once.  
<HG> _I do not love the Society. I never have. But the Powers That Be are in a delicate balance, and to take down one is to strengthen the others. _  
<HG> _And to take down all is to strengthen yourself.

Rumor does not want Sasha's revolution, because there is no guarantee that it would work, and no guarantee that it would be any better in the end.

 _< Sonja> "It's not unusual to have doubts about the benevolence of heroes." Sonja shrugs. "We will be proven in time."  
<HG> Lavender, and a green twig suggesting the snake that dwells underneath. _That attitude is exactly what I am afraid of.

Sonja is, as ever, still under the impression that she is the protagonist, and therefore that her side is automatically the moral side. Sasha does not agree. She insists that she doesn't actually want this power, that she is learning of the pitfalls of power from the antiexample that Aliki set, and that she is only doing this because nobody else will.

Rumor leaves, concealing their retreat by filling the entire room with flowers. Maddie uses a Persona enchantment of Fog to give the flowers the fog-nature: the flowers become a heavy flowery perfume.

There is a bit of in-character discussion after this, but it's just a summary of what just happened here, so I won't bother repeating it.

#### Dinner

Locus Liana is as weird as ever. (Though these days, entry is relatively easier: they just find the right bit of the Deep Web, rather than having to amass an entire doorway of movable type.) The Familia (well, most of it; Maddie has again sent her mother as representative) shows up to them having... dinner? Poorly animated dinner. The PCs join them.

_< HG> You find the entire familia - Toby, Punctuation, and the one you don't recognize - eating at a table. Well, you think it's eating. It's hard to be sure. I mean, there's food, and there are forks being brought in the general direction of mouths, but the exact route of the food in question is uncertain.  
<HG> Toby makes a vague gesture. The table extends, and three chairs clatter into place from nowhere in particular. "Care to join us?"  
<HG> The one you don't know puts the fork to her mouth again. The amount of beef roast on her plate suddenly decreases._

They introduce the other individual as Claudia of Constantinople. (There is a hilarious interlude here, in which Sasha is a showoff and eats a bag of chips from her 7-11 loudly and wipes her fingers, rather than adhering to the relevant local Region Property: [Actions are excessively abstracted]. Punctuation disapproves.)

Sasha asks them what they think of the Society. The attitudes of Toby and Punctuation are about what you would expect. Claudia says nothing.

_< HG> Toby: "Useful but generally filled with imbeciles."  
<HG> Punctuation: "You know, after what I saw with you, I have some questions."_

Sasha introduces Revolution, the sword-contract. Toby Houston instinctively uses a Greater Divination of the Internet and starts reading it as a document of Terms and Conditions, the kind you have to scroll through when signing up for a website, before Punctuation shushes him.

#### Claudia

Sasha introduces the _res_ herself, then:

_< Sasha> "We live in a society that is divided between more cliques than your average high school, which is a point I keep bringing up because it is true and absurd in its truth."  
<Sasha> "Normally I'd sit in the corner [self-pleasuring] at how delightfully miserable we've made ourselves, in the manner of the Dark, only there is a war going on, a war we aren't winning, and aren't going to win if we don't grow the hell up, collectively."  
<Sasha> "So I, Sasha Konstanian of the Dark, have come to replace the old way of doing things with this res, with this Revolution. To build a society on equanimity regardless of past wrongdoing, of age, of Song or Cleave. A society that surpasses this one, a united people who might actually usher in the Fourth Age."_

And, finally, she asks them if they want to join.

It is at this that Claudia of Constantinople, who has been silent for this entire conversation, finally stands up and begins speaking. Why, she asks, is Sasha talking? If Sasha really thinks that the structures of Society aren't working, why isn't she on the front lines of the Excrucian War? Because that is where Claudia serves.

_< HG> "There already is an association for when you decide that you are done with politicking and put yourself on the front lines. I am in it."  
<HG> Claudia attempts to put her hand on the sword but passes through it. That part of her flesh is briefly replaced by a spiderweb of burning red lines. She draws her hand away and the red trails away in embers.  
<HG> She is already signed to the Falling Stars. That association overrides all others._

#### Power

Punctuation asks to look at the sword, and Sasha hands it over. 

_< HG> Punctuation takes it in her hands, reverently. Or as reverently as you can be with an emoji for a face.  
<HG> "In the first fifty days of my Commencement," she says, quietly, "two came for my Robber's sigil. I traded my name to one. I traded my face to the other. I kept the sigil.  
<HG> "So what will you ask me to sacrifice for this?"_

There is a cost, Punctuation says, for there is always a cost. She asks what cost she will pay, for this.

Sasha responds: it is her attachment to 'how things are done'. The _mos maiorum_ , as the Meritorious would put it.

_< HG> She takes it up. Slowly, at first, she begins a blade dance, twirling it between fingers, passing it between hands, making stabs at the sky, to some imagined beat you do not hear. As she grows more confident, her feet become faster, her moves more daring.  
<HG> She gathers her hair in one hand. She holds the blade in the other.  
<HG> In one swift movement she slices her hair off.  
<HG> She puts the blade down on the table, then, gently, and begins plaiting her severed hair into a complex pattern.  
<HG> No prizes for guessing what she turns it into._

Sasha is happy to have a new ally, this one without any compromised allegiances.

Toby states that he'll keep it a secret, but needs more time to think before agreeing.

#### On The Next Episode...

Maddie argues with a mountain. It doesn't end well.


	13. Session 11: Words

_Is magic what is left when everything else has been explained? Why, then, the Nobilis have no magic._

\-- _The Other Side of Reality_ , by Caitlin Katsaros

* * *

Today, Maddie gets set on fire, and Sonja talks past Toby Houston on the topic of Purity.

#### Mountain Dragon

 _< HG> Helen can turn into fire.  
<HG> I mean, _now _her name is Helen. It was Loowit, once. But everyone calls her Mount St. Helens now, so Helen it is._

Maddie decides that she wants to continue looking for her Forbidden Alphabet, and decides that learning to speak words of fire could be helped by learning to _breathe_ fire. She slips away from a tour group and goes to look for the Power of Mount St. Helens. She finds a tiny fire dragon, with tiny black eyes. She challenges the fire dragon to a wrestling match.

_< Maddie> "I'm going to beat you in a wrestling match," Maddie says.  
<Maddie> "If I lose, I'll give you my whole entire estate."  
<Maddie> "But I'm not going to lose, and since I'll win, afterward you're going to teach me how to breathe fire."_

The dragon - Helen, of course - uncoils and increases in size. Despite Helen's initial reluctance to fight, Maddie goads her into fighting by screaming into her ear. At which point Helen sizes up again, and swallows Maddie.

Inside Helen's stomach, Maddie attempts to wrestle Helen's tongue into submission. Unfortunately, since Maddie is inside a dragon made of fire, she also gets extremely burnt. She takes this as a Deadly Wound, and gets herself trapped into the shapeshifted form of burning fog.

 _< Maddie> So Maddie feels herself burning. "That's not good," she thinks to herself. "I know! Fog doesn't burn, does it?"  
<Maddie> Quick as a flash, she's become a Maddie-shaped fog cloud.  
<Maddie> It turns out fog_ does _burn._

Maddie continues to needle Helen with pedantry and definitional arguments. Eventually Helen gets annoyed enough to force Maddie out. And since Maddie is burning fog, that technically counts as breathing fire!

Unfortunately, now that she is burning fog, Maddie is having some trouble getting back into the Chancel. She needs to go through a door to get in, and burning down a door does not count as going through a door.

_< HG> Are you going back to the Chancel?  
<Maddie> Yeah  
<HG> Okay, how are you going to do that when you're fire and would burn down any door you tried to touch?  
<Maddie> I'm sure Keith will take care of it  
<HG> Nah, Keith thinks it's hilarious that you accidentally shut yourself out_

#### Every Single Book

Sonja, having also discovered Diane Spinnaker's Metaphorical Dirt in the back of her mind, decides to go read some books. By which I mean she decides to read every single book in the Chancel.

This is a level 9 Aspect miracle, which gives her the ability to read and recite every bit of every book that exists in her Chancel. Unfortunately, since this is also a Word of Command, it inflicts a Deadly Wound. For that Wound, Sonja is temporarily incapable of reading, since she's seen every word so many times that none of them make sense anymore.

A Level 9 Aspect miracle allows you to do the thing unlimited times for the rest of the story, and protects your ability to do so with an Auctoritas 4. So, despite the Wound, Sonja is still perfectly capable of recalling everything in every book. She'll be a veritable exposition machine for quite a while.

#### The Other Sort Of Purity

Sonja decides that, since she's thinking about moral failure and impurity, she should go pay Toby Houston a visit in Locus Liana. After entering a cutscene, they begin talking. Sonja discusses how she thinks the purity of society is compromised. Toby Houston says that she is using the wrong words for it.

 _< Sonja> "I see a taint on the Society and its members, one I wish to scrub clean."  
<Sonja> "You can't honestly tell me you look at the Society and see the behavior of the good and pure."  
<HG> "Ah," he says. "_That _purity."  
<HG> "The one that is in lowercase."  
<HG> "To be clear: traditional practice of Purity places 'good' and 'pure' on orthogonal axes. If you intend to cleanse Society of evil influences, I can't help you."_

Sonja continues to keep talking about lowercase-p purity, Toby Houston continues to talk about uppercase-P Purity, and they both miss each others' points by several miles. This is when Sonja decides to bring up That Thing Diane Spinnaker did. She expects it to be a shocking revelation, but it bounces off without making a dent.

 _< HG> "She stopped doing that eight hundred years ago."  
<Sonja> "You _knew _about this?"  
<HG> "Was I supposed to care?"_

Sonja is quietly furious. Toby's habit of calling people who don't understand him "young" does not help.

He tries to say that the arguments and infighting don't actually matter, because the Nobilis have an outside threat, and they have always unified to fight it off.

_< HG> "The social shenanigans matter in the abstract, and they matter in our free time, and maybe some people get the privilege of letting others do their fighting for them."  
<HG> "But here's the thing: when the chips are down, when the Excrucians are right in front of you, the infighting stops mattering."_

Sonja does not find this particularly convincing, and turns to leave. Unfortunately, one of the Region Properties of Locus Liana is that [Things only exist when you are looking at them.] Which means the door has disappeared. Too proud to ask for help, Sonja leaves by making her presence metaphorical.

#### Coda

A few loose thoughts, too small to be a scene of their own, follow.

Purity has made Toby Houston's morality alien. He now values only extreme dedication, and that's all he can promote. Maybe his past self would have resisted that, but his past self doesn't exist anymore. It is too late for him to stop being the personification of Algorithmic Hell.

Meanwhile, Maddie has completed a Project bubble! She is now meaningfully closer to her goal of learning the Forbidden Alphabets. (Okay, so I haven't been consistent in marking which scenes yielded Destiny points, but it's happened.) She finds herself thinking about words that are fire, reviews every Destiny-bearing incident that got her here, and realizes something.

She can't speak fire. But she might be able to speak _to_ fire.

#### On The Next Episode...

Pigeons.


	14. Session 12: Pigeons

_He led me to a balcony far above the crowd, and drew shut the curtains as I sat down._

_"You truly want me to make my opinion known? Very well. I will be fully honest for you - lift away every veil and courtesy and social obligation - for this one statement."_

_He lifted his mask, and put it to one side. I did not see his face._

_"I acknowledge the accusations you have made against the Dominus Flags. I fully believe that you are telling the truth. However, I must ignore the accusations you have made, because the Dominus Flags is a linchpin of the War and we cannot afford to lose him. Do not give me any more evidence. Do not attempt to ask me to take action against him again. I cannot do anything more for you."_

_He put his mask back on._

_After a few moments, he offered an arm to me. "Now that that's over with, shall we rejoin the others?"_

\-- from the Thought-Record of Megan Kieros, Power of Pigeons

* * *

Today, the PCs try to recruit a certain Power of Pigeons. And fail. But it's an interesting failure, promise.

I will also note that this is the beginning of a new Story (the thing that Chuubo's calls a "book"), so MP has been replenished to the cap, and most Wounds are cleared. However, the Wounds that Sonja and Maddie just acquired in the previous session - having eaten the entire library of Locus Kethredamen, and being on fire, respectively - are retained.

#### Cracking Crystal

 _< HG> The object that holds the contract of the Robbers and the Ravens, the _res _, is a set of perfectly twinned crystals, each the size of a man._  
_< HG> Having two competing forces - one attempting to forcibly eject Sasha from the Robbers, the other preventing this same ejection, both with high Strike - has cracked one of them._

The past actions of Sasha Konstanian, colliding directly with the past actions of the Saint of Punctuation, have visible consequences - they are fracturing the _res_ that holds the Robbers and Ravens together. A messenger is here to ask who did this, and could they stop it? Sasha's answer is, approximately, "go sit and spin".

_< Sasha> Sasha taps her foot, stands up straight, touches Revolution. "The res cannot bear the paradox. It must take from me my Sigil, but that which is mine cannot be taken."_  
_< Sasha> "Frankly, I see a clear response, which is that it should stop attempting to take that which is mine."_

They didn't know it was her before this. They know now. Sonja notes that this is definitely going to rebound on them, to which Sasha replies that she wants more allies.

In a previous session, it had been noted that Powers of the Wild were less likely to join, or create factions within, the Society of Flowers. Sonja, having read all the books, found one that has at least _some_ knowledge about Powers of the Wild who are on the fringes of Society.

Because this comes from her most recent Aspect 9 miracle, Sonja has the equivalent of a Skill, "Superior Well-Read 4". She uses this with a bit of Will to pull something useful, and look cool doing it. (And yes, she is using Will, and not an Aspect miracle, because Sonja still doesn't entirely trust this 'being Noble' thing.)

_< HG> You pull out the right book. It's a tattered spiral-bound journal belonging to one of the previous Nobles of Familia Kethredamen  
<Sonja> "Here, I believe I saw some useful info in this. Old familia members from before our time."  
<Sonja> She offers it to Sasha to look through.  
<Sasha> alright aspect 2 miracle of Skill: Eavesdropping to read real fast  
<HG> I guess we all know what happens next. I just put the quote up, after all. You're looking for Pigeons._

#### Flying

After a brief discussion about where to find the Power of Pigeons, the group decides to start by finding pigeons.

_< HG> You emerge into the back alley behind a tiny deli or something.  
<HG> Pigeons are there, staring at you, annoyed that their morning of trash-picking has been so rudely interrupted.  
<Sasha> "WE'RE HERE TO PAY OUR RESPECTS TO MEGAN KIEROS!"  
<HG> They fly away, startled._

The PCs, after a brief and inadvisable attempt to talk to normal pigeons (that doesn't work because they are normal pigeons), try to figure out a better approach. So Sonja's player advances an argument: Sonja, being a YA book protagonist, knows the wisdom of animals, and thus can get this kind of information out of them. (I allowed it.) She asks where to find Megan, and the pigeons respond.

Unfortunately, pigeons don't know how to give two-legger walking directions, because they get around almost exclusively by flying. But Sonja has just the thing for this situation: her make-truth-out-of-a-metaphor Gift!

_< Sonja> okay so what if I do the truth creation on the phrase "spread your wings"?  
<Maddie> I think we will need to be metaphorically spreading our wings for that to work  
<Sasha> We're trying new things!  
<Sasha> and reaching out to people instead of desperately fending them off with all our social acumen  
<HG> You... have wings??  
<HG> Okay then  
<HG> Now what?_

A brief Enchantment of Fog to reduce risk of _dementia animus_ later, the pigeons and the PCs head off into the distance.

_< HG> You're approaching a belfry in some tiny New England town when a pigeon makes a rather undignified startled squawk and starts trying to fly away from you._

They find Megan, in pigeon-form. She tries to lose them in a deep forest; Maddie does a Lesser Sacrifice of Fog to remove the "hiding the world from your senses" part of said forest. (It doesn't make the forest invisible. You can still see the trees. But if you stare through the trees you can see past them to whatever you need to.)

Sonja gives herself a Lesser Emulation of Metaphor, via the "reveal hidden truths" property, to add some miraculous backing to an attempt to tell Megan that they really and truly mean no harm. That _finally_ gets Megan to sit down and let them talk.

#### Power

 _< HG> You find Megan on the side of a dirt road, shifted back to human, in a dusty traveling cloak, sitting on a pile of logs. Her hair is grayed. She studiously avoids looking at you.  
<Sasha> "I'm Sasha Konstanian, wielder of the _res _Revolution, here to talk about the essential problems with the Society of Flowers."_

Upon meeting them, Megan recognizes Sonja. (She is, after all, in an extremely popular book.) Sasha tries to bring up her Revolution, since Megan more than anyone would have good reason to distrust Noble society. Megan is dismissive, because she doesn't think they have a chance.

It is at this point that Maddie Clarkson, the Domina Fog, currently present via her mother as Anchor, figures that they need to do something drastic to get Megan's attention. What she does is something deeply inadvisable.

 _< Maddie> "I've been hearing the Song of the Wild lately myself, so I want to reach out. I am not going to ask anything of you. Instead, I give you a gift of power as a token of my goodwill," Grace says, in Maddie's voice.  
<Maddie> She holds her hands out, and -- can I use some kind of variant of the Rite of the Last Trump to bleed out all of my MP at her?  
<HG> _All _of it?_

Despite my warnings, Maddie decides to give Megan Kieros every last drop of miraculous energy she has. This has no rules in the book, but after some thought, I decide that this is basically a Deadly Wound: [I am drained of power]. And if she wants to throw away her MP while taking said Wound, that's her prerogative.

_< Maddie> "I know this doesn't mean anything about our chances against the Society in an open conflict," Grace says, in her own voice again. "But I hope this makes it clear that we are coming here in good faith."  
<Maddie> "We're not asking you to serve us. We're offering to work together, for the betterment of us all."  
<HG> "Are you expecting something in return?"  
<Maddie> "No."  
<HG> "Then give me time to think."  
<HG> She stands up. Begins walking down the dirt road._

Sasha is quietly happy that her celestial-siblings are spending all their MP, so she doesn't have to. Sonja disapproves of this. And Maddie, having nothing left to sustain the Treasure miracle that connects her to her mother, withdraws. (Or possibly she withdraws so that Sonja can't upbraid her? Uncertain.) Megan begins to leave.

#### Not Convinced, Exactly

Sonja was the hero - not a perfect paragon, but someone who tried to be good - in her story. This is why Megan, who has recognized that this is either Sonja or someone who is trying really hard to be Sonja, decides to trust her. Megan tells Sonja to walk with her, and pointedly ignores the other two, who head back to civilization.

_< HG> "So. Your... compatriot. The one who had the sword. What's her angle?"_

Megan asks: isn't Sasha trying to profit from this? Because, she continues, nobody seeks power for entirely selfless reasons, and it is all too easy for your motivation - and your methods - to become corrupt as you rise through the ranks.

Sonja brings up, now, what Spinnaker did with her Anchors - and that Sasha, upon finding out that Rhonda did the same thing, sent Rhonda off to face punishment.

_< Sonja> "We had an ally of ours, Domina Cups, do something that came uncomfortably close to what Spinnaker did. Upon finding out, Sasha immediately demanded that she turn herself in and face the same punishment that anyone else would've received in a fair system."  
<Sonja> "We don't protect our allies from their mistakes."  
<HG> She stops short, and turns to look directly at Sonja.  
<HG> "Tell you what," she says, suddenly turning to walk again. "I'll request the Court records. If you're right, I'll come back to you."_

Megan is still not entirely convinced, because nothing is going to convince Megan by itself. But this gets her attention. She says she'll look into it.

#### On The Next Episode...

This campaign has had no Excrucians in it thus far. I am about to fix this.


	15. Session 13: Attack

_You serve your Imperator before the War, and the War before yourself._

\-- Lord Entropy's Code Fidelitatis (canon quote)

* * *

Today, a classic Estate attack hits too close to home.

#### Estate Attack

_< HG> Something is wrong._

Maddie Clarkson, who has been spending her time attempting to strengthen Ice Cream (without success), feels an Estate attack somewhere around Maine. Incarnating there with Persona, she sees the problem: there is a new kind of lamp, one that pierces perfectly through fog. Making things as visible as if there was no fog at all.

_< Maddie> I want to use a Preservation to strengthen the fog_  
_ <HG> Your miracle careens off the area of where the attack is, slick as accidentally stepping on an oiled bowling-lane._

Maddie tries to make the fog hide the light again, only to find an Auctoritas protecting it. She adds another MP for strike, which works, but draws attention. Through the lamplight, someone taunts Maddie about her near-defeat status, and demands to see Sasha. Maddie stands firm.

During this, Maddie notices the light crackling like a flame - and, having just learned to talk to fire, tries to talk the light out of the service of its master. The light is a little thing, too scared of retaliation to break away. Maddie decides to help force the issue by creating an Auctoritas to guard herself, her Intention to talk to the light, and the light itself.

#### Brief Digressions

We cut away from Maddie to establish where everyone else is.

Sasha is trying to find more prospects to join her sword-society. I tell Sasha's player that she can do it but I don't have relevant NPC ideas; then give her the opportunity to write up those NPCs herself.

Sonja, meanwhile, is serving her Estate. She wants to better fund high school English classes, to spread understanding of metaphors. In so doing, she invents the [golf ball drop](https://perfectgolfevent.com/golf-ball-drop/) fundraiser.

After that, Sonja's player decides that Sonja might want to Anchor her own author. I let her add the Bond, then put off the actual scene of the Anchoring for a while. (It'll happen eventually, but it's a few sessions later.)

#### Only Metaphorically On Fire

Sonja notices that a copy of the novel she came from is on fire. She does her own Incarnation, and finds that someone is burning it against a certain streetlamp.

_< Sonja> Sonja incarnates in the burning book. "Could you not do that?" she asks as she looks around the area. What does she see?_  
_ <HG> Someone is perched on top of one of those r-shaped streetlamps, holding the book against the light. It crackles._

Sonja enchants the book with Metaphors, making the literally on fire into metaphorically on fire (i.e. popular right now). Whoever's been burning it drops the book to the ground. The burning of the book was a (successful) attempt to get Sonja's attention, since Maddie refused to summon Sasha, so the point has already been made.

_< HG> "Anyway, tell your sisters to thank Rhonda Caseworth for me."_

The person who burnt the book taunts them, mentioning Rhonda. Sonja uses a Divination to find the book-burner's name. It's an Anchor, named Jesse. But I decided to give her an extra name, for free:

Anze Torquil, Excrucian Strategist.

I decide that there's not much point playing out a miraculous combat for the lightbulb, so the lightbulb managed to slip away somewhere in this conversation.

(Sonja saw the properties that were being attacked, incidentally. It's kinda obvious when clinging fog fails to impede your vision.)

#### The Long Game

Sonja, who does not understand cellphones, rings Sasha up via Incarnation in a copy of her book. Sasha asks what's going on. Sonja mentions Maddie being under attack, and also that the Anchor mentions Rhonda having been useful:

_< Sonja> "'Thank Rhonda Caseworth for me', was what I just heard. From the anchor of an Excrucian." Sonja sounds at least a little panicked._  
_ <Sonja> "Anze Torquil, a Strategist."_

Sasha swears furiously, then asks the Raven, and also Revolution, for information. Obviously, Revolution has no idea what's going on. But the Raven gives some information - Anze has attacked Creation before, and is a formidable opponent. Though the Raven is vague about how exactly to fight Anze.

_< HG> Raven gives you a very basic outline. Basically, the mental version of a one-page dossier/rap sheet, the type with a Polaroid picture paperclipped to the top left corner._  
_ <HG> She's an old one. Decent Treasure stat. Responsible for creating at least one Mimic._  
_ <Sasha> Raven doesn't know Anze's Vice or death right?_  
_ <HG> There are a couple guesses._  
_ <HG> None of them are obviously correct or totally false._

Sasha, having no real lead as to _how_ to combat Anze, summons Rhonda.

_< HG> Rhonda is very confused._  
_ <HG> At the very least, she is confused about why Sasha is holding a paperback to her ear._

Remember that Rhonda's offense, the one that forced her into the Green Snakes, was giving Incandescence to the Excrucians? Yep. That's what happened here. And how'd that happen?

_< HG> "I was young when I met her. She was my secret ally for many years, without ever betraying a hint of anti-Creation sentiments, and everything she told me to do ended well."_  
_ <HG> "And then -"_  
_ <HG> Rhonda has tears in her eyes._  
_ <HG> "They say I should never have trusted her. But she was the one who explained to me what being Noble was."_  
_ <Sasha> Sasha sets her hand on Rhonda's shoulder like someone who knows how to deal with feelings._

As an ancient Excrucian Strategist, Anze Torquil knows how to play the long game. And in this case, the long game was to befriend Rhonda when she was new to Nobility and didn't know anything, give her nothing but good advice for years and years, and _then_ trick her into betraying Creation.

Sasha doesn't judge Rhonda for not having known what an Excrucian Strategist could do. But she does still need to know what Rhonda knows.

_< Sasha> "But if you're connected to this current... thing, voluntarily or not, I need what information I can get so nothing happens to Maddie."_  
_ <HG> Rhonda takes a deep, shaky breath. "Okay. What do you need me to do?"_

#### On The Next Episode...

Maddie fails to deal with that thing where she's on fire.


	16. Session 14: Sleep

Today, sleep proves to be a problem for... approximately everyone. Though for different reasons.

#### Transience

Maddie, who is still a cloud of burning fog, is currently hanging out near an abandoned mall. She is _exhausted_. She's still fixated on the ice cream thing, and so when an interstate refrigerated ice cream truck comes around, she decides to try strengthening ice cream.

_< Maddie> My options for strengthening the properties of ice cream are limited in my current state_  
_< Maddie> Maddie's thinking:_  
_< Maddie> Ice cream is transient_  
_< Maddie> I am made of fire_  
_< Maddie> It's like it wants me to burn it all up!_  
_< Maddie> This is totally for ice cream's own good!_

So Maddie decides to worm her way into the refrigerated part of the truck. And set the ice cream on fire. Unfortunately, she is also melting _the entire rest of the truck_. The truck driver dismounts, starts calling emergency, and is currently fretting about whether she really saw a cloud of burning fog being sucked up into the truck. And then Maddie decides to hide in the engine. For camouflage, apparently.

 _< Maddie> Now when emergency services arrive it'll just look like an engine failure_  
_< HG> No, no it won't, it looks like the entire engine, including the metal, is on fire_  
_< Maddie> It totally will! Aspect 2 miracle of Lies and Dirty Tricks_  
_< HG> ..._  
_< HG> _fine

The firefighters make an attempt to extinguish the blaze. Water doesn't work particularly well, and this looks a little bit like a gasoline fire, so they try fire-retardant foam. This works for just barely long enough for Maddie to go back into the Chancel, which I allow because there's probably a nearly-dead Dennys near a dead shopping mall.

#### Warm...? Welcome

Darklord Kethredamen finds Maddie's predicament _hilarious_ (you know, as Darklords do), and thus refuses to help. (Though I guess he prevents the Chancel from being completely burned down.) Grace, being Maddie's Anchor and thus protected, gives Maddie the hug that she really needed. Sonja, who is made of paper and thus is quietly freaking out about possibly being burnt by Maddie, decides to throw her making-stuff-metaphorical powers at Maddie, to make her metaphorically on fire. Um, somehow. Honestly, nobody's using it for anything, so I didn't really define any particular effect.

 _< Sonja> "What in the world have you been doing?!"_  
_< Sonja> "You brought yourself into our chancel _made of books _while_ on fire _"_  
_< Maddie> "Keith is not going to let the chancel burn down."_  
_< Sonja> "_I'm _made of paper! I have to live here too!"_  
_< Maddie> "Honestly, I was kind of hoping for a warmer welcome. I've been..."_  
_< HG> (maddie your welcome was about as warm as it could be)_  
_< HG> (because it was on fire)_  
_< Maddie> Her tone kind of falls a little_  
_< Maddie> "I've been stuck out there for a long time. Burning. Drained."_  
_< Maddie> "I'm tired."_

After the immediate fire problem is taken care of, Sonja tells Maddie off for all this. Maddie makes sad noises about being exhausted, drained of power, and unable to act on anything without setting it on fire. Sonja sighs and continues to sustain the metaphor-action to let Maddie sleep for a few hours.

#### A Dream of Fire

Sonja's player has turned in some Destiny, and requested two meaningful results from it. The first is a symbolic (possibly prophetic) dream: Heaven, on fire. And her, in a river running through the middle of it.

_< HG> It's like the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland except that it is made of stained glass and also everything is on fire._

And then the prophetic part of the dream: She careens down a waterfall, into an Excrucian with an extremely familiar face... though she doesn't know why she recognizes them. And at this, Sonja wakes up.

#### Right

Meanwhile, Sasha has been trying to (and mostly failing to) get more allies for Revolution, offscreen. Upon returning to the Chancel, briefly, to check on things, she finds Sonja. Who has screamed herself awake.

_< Sasha> Sasha bursts in with her hand on her sword and deep circles under her eyes_  
_< Sasha> "Okay! What's up!"_  
_< Sonja> Sonja freaks out for a moment when she sees Sasha burst in. "I... I'm home right? Nothing's on fire?" She sounds a little bit panicked._

Sonja is about to describe the dream she had, but then remembers that the face of that Excrucian felt entirely too familiar. She decides not to bother.

_< Sonja> "...nothing, I think I'm alright." Sonja offers a smile. "I'm okay, thank you for checking on me."_  
_< Sasha> "Right," Sasha says in the sort of voice that suggests it is not actually right, "no prob."_

Sasha is incredibly exhausted, but is forcing herself to continue on with her work. Sonja attempts to convince her to go to sleep. It doesn't work.

_< Sonja> "Don't go full protag on me. Everybody needs sleep." Sonja crosses her arms. "You might feel better and it won't meaningfully hinder our progress."_  
_< Sonja> "Go to bed."_  
_< Sasha> "...I'll see what I can do."_  
_< Sasha> And then she... Walks out? She's almost unusued to leaving social situations without storming._  
_< Sonja> Sonja groans. "We're all a giant mess aren't we?" she mutters._  
_< Sasha> "Isn't EVERYTHING?" Sasha calls back dramatically."_

#### Shining

To finish the other completed Destiny bubble, Sonja looks at herself in the mirror, and finds that she's changed: a shard of something is shining straight through the middle of her forehead.

Something elementally beautiful.

A shard of Heaven itself.

#### On The Next Episode...

Blood.


	17. Session 15: Court

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content note** : In this session, there is blood that is simultaneously also bugs, because Mythic Reality. Two phobias for the price of one!

_They got Al Capone for tax evasion, in the end. Not his commissioning of murders, not his smuggling operation, not any other part of his criminal empire. Because tax evasion was what they had the evidence for._

_The Windflower Law of the Code Fidelitatis is the same. Evidence of treachery or subtle malice could be difficult, or impossible, to find. But the existence of Anchors is trivial to prove._

_As above, so below._

\-- _The Other Side of Reality_ , by Caitlin Katsaros

* * *

Today, Sasha goes to court! And also the others are there, I guess.

#### Antarctica

Sasha's raven pin has broken in half. (Well, technically she's wearing it as a necklace now, but details.) The other half has disintegrated.

The implication is clear: Sasha is no longer a Robber-and-Raven. She is only a Robber. And this happened to everyone else, too.

 _< Sasha> ...Approximately five minutes into the Pin Hunt, Sasha realizes what it means._  
_< Sasha> "...People are going to be _pissed."  
_< Sasha> Sasha is smiling like a jackal, now._

As with the last time she pissed off major fractions of Noble society, Sasha decides to run off to somewhere remote to, in theory, hide from the consequences. Though she picks Antarctica, this time, instead of Siberia, and takes the rest of the Familia with her. This is exactly as effective as it was last time, which is to say: not at all.

_< HG> There is someone behind you._  
_< HG> It's not a person. Not exactly. You don't so much see them. But there is a qualia, associated with them._  
_< HG> You feel yourself being flensed._

And who finds Sasha there? Hugh Rosewood. An Ogre. Lord Entropy's hand. And why is he there? To summon them to the Locust Court, about Rhonda.

_< HG> "You, Sasha Konstanian, Baroness Alienation, are needed in evidence at the trial of the Duchess of Cups."_

Sasha knows when she can't get out of something. She assents. The other PCs come along.

#### The Court

The Locust Court is a place of solace, and so Maddie is returned temporarily to herself. In here, she doesn't have to be burning fog. The reason for this is rapidly revealed: the Chancel is made almost entirely of wood and paper. Past the antechamber - the place of rest, the great hall of thousands of pews where people recover from dementia animus - is a second set of doors. And then they are in the courtroom itself.

_< HG> The doors open as you approach, creaking of ancient wood. Beyond is a clearing, within a circle of trees. Their leaves are blank paper, ready to be plucked and used._  
_< Sonja> Okay, no big deal. Protagonists go into the lair of evil all the time. Totally fine._  
_< Sonja> (spoiler alert: she's not fine)_

Rhonda is in the position of the defense; Surolam sits motionless where the judge ought to be; the prosecution is a jar of blood. And the court clerks are direwolves. One wolf operates the jar of blood, which is to say that they drip a bit of blood onto a fresh parchment-leaf and read it aloud. After everyone's names have been announced, the blood asks: What is the nature of Sasha's relationship with Rhonda?

Sasha answers, in total honesty, that it is love.

_< Maddie> Maddie lets the bodyguard act slip for 1.5 seconds, just long enough to make it clear that she's giggled._  
_< HG> "We are surprised," the blood's words continue, "that you would admit so readily to the breaking of the Windflower Law."_  
_< Sonja> Sonja looks tense. She wants to interfere, to say "clearly it was a mistake", to encourage Sasha to take back what she said. But she can't. Not in good conscience._

And then Rhonda denies that it was ever love in the first place.

_< HG> Rhonda stares directly at Sasha. "No," she says, in a voice that seems tinny and far-away. "As I have told you. She is my superior. It is not love."_

#### Inversion

Just like that, the Court lets Rhonda free. They take Sasha instead.

_< HG> There is a wolf gently unwinding a golden chain from around Rhonda. She looks at Sasha in desperation. She makes a motion, tries to reach out, but then she is carried through the doors, beyond your sight._  
_< HG> "She is innocent of the Law," says the blood. "And you are not."_

Sasha claims, in her defense, that it would be more immoral _not_ to love someone, under the circumstances. The jar of blood demands that Maddie and Sonja leave. Sasha tells them to look after Rhonda. The others protest, but they are fairly shoved out the door by Hugh Rosewood.

_< Sonja> "Please tell me you have a plan," Sonja whispers._  
_< Sasha> "When was the last time I had a plan for anything."_

Sonja and Maddie find themselves outside the courtroom doors, in the great hall of the Locust Court. They worry. Maddie suggests that if Sasha doesn't come out, they need to go ahead with the rebellion; Sonja just paces anxiously.

Meanwhile, in the courtroom, Hugh Rosewood forces Sasha into contact with more of the blood.

_< HG> Hugh is carrying a larger jar, this one unglazed earthenware. He places it in front of Sasha. He delicately removes the lid of the jar, setting aside the waxed cotton that lined it._  
_< HG> He takes Sasha's hand, yanking the rest of her along without thought or sympathy, and roughly shoves it into the jar, and the blood inside._

And the blood becomes scarabs, and the scarabs pour into Sasha's mind.

#### Scarabs

(Technically this was run as Minisession 15.5, but it was also just two hours after the previous events, on the same day. So for the purposes of summary I'm just going to put it right here.)

Scarabs are Lord Entropy's. They sift through Sasha's mind, dispassionately. Sasha, for her part, holds herself together by remembering that she is the harbinger and keeper of Revolution.

The scarabs notice this. They look more deeply. What is Sasha doing? And why?

_< HG> Slowly, they examine - or, possibly, you examine, it's hard to tell - your motivations, there._  
_< Sasha> The Cneph-honest truth is that she didn't expect it to get this far. She didn't expect to find words to explain what she feels. She just knows that she has seen the face of the world, and hated it, and means to burn herself out in destroying it._

And then the scarabs arrive at a conclusion, withdraw, and give Sasha her due punishment.

I'm just going to dump the next scene in here wholesale, because I cannot bear to summarize it.

#### The Imperial Miracle

 _< HG> You have heard of the greater miracles that the Imperators weave at the depths of the world. You have felt the distant waves, like earthquakes, as an Imperial Miracle thunders by and leaves the world subtly changed in its wake._  
_< HG> This one is not subtle, and this one is not far away._  
_< HG> You are being rendered unable to communicate; not by speaking, not by writing, not by leaving things undone for others to find, not by making wordless faces of desperation._  
_< HG> It is not a complete destruction. It allows you to continue to fight the Excrucians. And it allows you to continue to uncover the treacheries and lies and sins of the powerful, by causing them to trip and fall into admitting it in a way that would turn public opinion against them._  
_< HG> It is a punishment too perfect for you, too well-aimed at your soul._  
_< Sasha> _No.  
_< Sasha> To try and stay the course of an Imperial Miracle is as simple and as impossible as swallowing the inrushing tide._  
_< Sasha> The white fire that burns in Sasha's chest offers her compromises-- ways to preserve the thing she calls a "self" in the wake of this unanswerable magic._  
_< Sasha> She tells the white fire that burns in her chest to go f--k itself._  
_< Sasha> Lord Entropy, for all his mystique, for all his greater-than-human divinity, for all his wretched sin and corruption, is still a_ person. _And_ nobody _has a right to treat anyone this way._ Nobody _has a right to play puppetmaster with a living soul._  
_< Sasha> She refuses. If it scars her, if it breaks her, if it kills her or makes her worse than she would have been, she will not stand for this._  
_< HG> The pronouncement upon the world does not change. It continues, unabated, setting you ajangle like a windchime partially sunk into roaring whitewater, tossing you about like a boat unanchored in a storm, echoing through you like a flood washing downriver, slowly and inexorably destroying town after town._  
_< HG> Or, perhaps, these metaphors are only partially true, because it is not water that roars through you like a hurricane's winds. It is blood._  
_< HG> Your very bones threaten to shake themselves free._  
_< HG> It might not be possible, you think, for an Imperator to un-speak an Imperial Miracle once it is spoken. But even if he could, you get that distinct sense that the Darkest Lord, the prophecied destroyer, the prophecied savior, Lord Entropy of the Evil World and the corruption-blood, would not take this back._  
_< HG> Tell me, then._  
_< HG> If you are taking two Deadly Wounds, to stand in front of an Imperial Miracle and plant your feet upon the earth and refuse to move, what are they?_  
_< Sasha> The fire flares. It writes a law into Sasha's nature._  
_< Sasha> _My words are too important to silence.  
_< Sasha> This would be enough to stay the miracle's worst effects. This would be the compromise she refused to take._  
_< Sasha> Instead, it flares further. Light burns in every vessel of her body. Her eyes are like torch sconces._  
_< Sasha> _I am being consumed by my own divinity.  
_< HG> How curious._  
_< HG> This is not unprecedented. A few other Nobles have taken on the impossible task of refusing an Imperial Miracle completely. And a few have even succeeded at outlasting the Miracle itself, at standing against it and waiting for the fire to burn out._  
_< HG> But there is one thing that you never needed to stand against. A peculiarly-shaped hole._  
_< HG> Even in the depths of the prison of silence he would have trapped you in, you were still allowed to reveal the hypocrisy of power. You would still have been able to reveal Diane Spinnaker, in the process of intimidating another into silence; or the Council of the Light, plotting amongst themselves to reallocate the scarce resources of the War and use them for personal gain._  
_< HG> And even as the fire spills out of you, the whuff of the hot air ruffling the leaves of the parchment-trees and singeing the nearest bench of wood, you realize:_  
_< HG> Lord Entropy might have silenced you. But he would have left you your purpose. He would have allowed you to continue your work._  
_< HG> It's practically an endorsement._  
_< Sasha> Sasha looks up, in the vague direction of Hugh Rosewood and the big jar of Entropy._  
_< Sasha> She looks up and smiles, and light shines through her teeth._  
_< Sasha> Sasha sighs, and light escapes her. She brushes herself off and singes her clothing. She looks up._  
_< Sasha> "I have to talk to Rhonda."_  
_< HG> The doors open when you approach them._  
_< HG> They shut behind you when you leave._

#### On The Next Episode...

A proper Excrucian fight, not like all those weaksauce ones that have occurred so far. You know, with the big miracles and the semantics and all that.


	18. Session 16: Hat

_And what's left, at the end of your force of will? Nothing but a slow slide into mediocrity. Will is all you have, and someone can break it._

\-- reportedly said by Ismenia Esdelot, Excrucian Deceiver

* * *

Today, an encounter with a a hat. Oh, and I guess an Excrucian Shard. But mostly just the hat.

#### A... Dream?

 _< HG> You emerge into a smoking crater. You know. A smoking crater in the middle of some random suburban area. Nothing is wrong here except for the_ gigantic smoking crater. _Nothing at all._

Coming out of the Locust Court, via a pair of foo dog statues around someone's front gate, Maddie and Sonja find a crater where the dust hasn't settled yet. Maddie uses a lesser divination of Fog (smoke/dust is close enough to fog) to see what's going on: a lawnmower exploded.

Inside, next to the lawnmower, lies Sonja's author.

He is, obviously, extremely injured from having an explosion go off near his feet, so Sonja decides that this is the time to act on that idea she had a while back to Anchor her author. Since I have established before that Anchoring tends to fix these things, this heals him. Though he's still dazed, because, um, is a character he wrote standing right there?

_< HG> He stands up, entirely fine, suddenly. "Please tell me what's going on."_  
_< Sonja> "My name is Sonja, Duchess of Metaphors and the savior of Höfn. As far as the explosion, we're still not sure. We just got here."_

He decides that this is a dream, so he may as well go along with things.

It transpires that he got a weird package the previous week from someone wearing sunglasses at an odd time of night. (While asking questions, Maddie claims to be the police. And then God. Yes, in the singular. Sonja disapproves.) He doesn't remember what was inside it, says that it doesn't matter suspiciously quickly, and then is interrupted by someone who is, very distinctly, _not_ emergency services.

#### The Hat

Nope. It's just one woman, in an exceptionally broad-brimmed hat and a pickup truck. She claims to be called Holly, apparently works for some company or other, and asks after the "gas main explosion".

_< Sonja> "As far as I can tell everybody's okay. There might be others though."_  
_< Maddie> "Also, it wasn't a gas main. Can I get your name and badge number?"_  
_< HG> She flashes some sort of ID card clipped to a pocket. "Name's Holly. I'm from the Olive Company."_  
_< Maddie> "Hm," Maddie says. "I'm sorry Holly, but I'm going to need to ask you to remove your hat."_  
_< HG> "Why?"_  
_< Maddie> "I'm with the FBI," she says, making a motion like she's flashing an ID card with her empty hands._

Maddie attempts to order Holly to remove her hat, claims to be "with the FBI", then presents absolutely nothing as credentials. I demand that Maddie's player back this up with the rules, because a thirteen-year-old that also happens to be on fire does not typically make a convincing FBI agent. She claims that Aspect 2 will work, at least for a moment or two. I'm not impressed, because Aspect 2 is not high enough to pull that off. Though it is a high enough Intention level to stall her for a moment.

With this moment, Sonja tells Saul to flee. Saul makes an earnest attempt to do so.

So Holly attempts to ram Maddie, but Maddie isn't corporeal enough to ram. You know, owing to being a cloud of burning fog. The truck just goes through her, and starts to melt.

#### Literalization

Sonja tries to stop Holly with a miracle from her favorite Gift - the one that makes metaphors literal. She does in fact succeed in stopping Holly. On the other hand, because she specified the miracle so narrowly (so narrowly that I interpreted it as a dare to break it), she fails to stop the shard. Turns out that the Excrucian Shard was not the person. It was the hat.

_< HG> Holly curses and gets back out of the truck before it traps her inside, vaulting off some nearby gate and up into the air--_  
_< Sonja> "Oh no you don't!" Sonja yells. "You're going nowhere fast." She uses 1 DMP to use her making-literal gift on the phrase, targeting 'Holly'._  
_< HG> She targets the person called Holly. The person is trapped in the air. The hat continues unabated, veering off in the wind._  
_< HG> Nice try though._

Said hat then boomerangs around and tries to slice off Sonja's head, rotating so blazingly fast that the brim may as well be a sawblade. Sonja decides that this is "nothing to lose one's head over", makes that particular aphorism literal, and fails to be sliced through. (Though a bit of Strike was necessary, considering that I've established that everything Anze does has an ambient Auctoritas.)

#### Incarnation

The hat comes back for her, this time to slice open her forehead, and that's something Sonja isn't quite so prepared to dodge. But Maddie reminds her that she's got an Anchor to incarnate into, and so Sonja escapes any further slicing attempts by sticking herself into... well, Saul doesn't actually have the entirety of her book on him, but apparently he does have a memento from it, so I squint and let it pass.

_< Maddie> "Sonja, you don't need to chase her."_  
_< Maddie> "That guy is your anchor now. Wherever he is, you are too."_  
_< Sonja> Does Saul have any books on him?_  
_< HG> He's wearing some sort of bracelet with a few lines from your book engraved on it. I'll allow it._  
_< HG> It's not comfortable, but it'll do._  
_< Sonja> Cool! Sonja grins and waves goodbye to the hat as she hops into Saul's bracelet._

The hat, now deprived of its first target, attempts coming back for Maddie. It grows in size and tries to slam down on Maddie like a lid. Maddie has a better idea. She decides to throw a Major Preservation of Fog onto _herself_.

_< Maddie> Making myself physically impenetrable, tall as a hill, thick as butter and completely opaque_  
_< Maddie> And swallow up the hat in my bulk_

A brief rephrasing of a Bond for Strike later, this works pretty well. Maybe too well. A Preservation strengthens and increases her, and she uses this to establish that she's grown large enough to just swallow up the hat's attempt. Unfortunately, this is also large enough to consume the rest of the block.

_< HG> ok so you made yourself big, right?_  
_< Maddie> Yes_  
_< HG> big enough to swallow several nearby houses_  
_< Maddie> Sure!_  
_< HG> and Saul can't run that fast_  
_< HG> and Sonja and her book burn like paper_  
_< Sonja> oh no_

Yeah, Maddie's gigantic flaming fog bulk hits Sonja, who must then take a Deadly Wound against burning to a crisp.

This costs her an arm and a leg.

She immediately takes the bounty of MP she got from her "me and my book burn like paper" Affliction very nearly killing her, throws it into her Persona MP pool, and promptly makes both her and Saul's presence here metaphorical before _he_ burns.

#### Cell Phone

The two retreat to Antarctica to regroup. I mean, it worked for keeping Maddie's burningness under control the last time, right? (Also, Maddie has decided that she wants _all_ of Anze's anchors for herself. She is starting by wearing the hat she just stole.)

A phone call comes in. Nearby, an Antarctic researcher answers it, looks very confused, and comes over to hand the phone to... whoever can still use it?

_< Sonja> Sonja uses her one good hand to answer the phone. "I'm still not used to these things," she says as she puts it on speakerphone. She coughs, sending some burnt paper ashes into the air._  
_< Maddie> "Sasha Sasha Sasha!" Maddie bounces up and down like she's meeting a favorite aunt who only visits on Christmas. "Do you like my hat? Also, are you okay? How'd the thing with Entropy go?"_  
_< Sasha> "Sasha's very super busy right now, what with the torture and magic and resolve and jealousy and confrontation and all that."_  
_< Sasha> "But don't worry guys! I'll help you out!"_  
_< Sasha> The cell phone sounds like if Clippie was voice acted._

Yep, turns out that this isn't Sasha. This is her phone.

Anyway, the phone fills them in on the entire "Sasha got punished by Lord Entropy but in a specific way that implied that he approved of her actions" thing. Also it says that currently Sasha's chasing Rhonda. They banter for a bit - turns out that Maddie and the phone get along like a house on fire! Which is appropriate, since Maddie is pretty on fire.

#### Locus Millefolia

So, Sasha finds Rhonda in her home chancel, which is an underwater city populated by snails.

_< HG> Rhonda Caseworth, the Duchess of Cups, the one who might or might not be your love, is currently suction-cupped upside down by her feet to the top of the dome, staring out at a shoal of fish illuminated by Locus Millefolia's false-sun. She averts her eyes in shame as you approach._

Rhonda states that the Court has taken Heat into custody, and will decide separately on his case. Then Sasha asks why Rhonda said that their relationship wasn't love. Rhonda's answer - that she was trying to keep Sasha out of trouble in the Court - does not particularly satisfy Sasha, who promptly goes on one of her Speeches (as has become usual) about how she refuses to let Lord Entropy force the love out of her soul.

_< Sasha> "We are not just afraid of his wrath, which is quite the sensible thing to fear."_  
_< Sasha> "We are afraid of our own love. He has made what we feel evil in our eyes."_  
_< Sasha> "...That's why I had to say what I said. I refuse to be made less than human."_

And so Rhonda recounts how she was nobody, had nobody to rely on, even before Nobility; and afterwards, the one person she trusted turned out to be Anze Torquil. Sasha cannot restrain herself from speaking her true feelings, which are contradictory. Rhonda decides that she is done with this nonsense, and rejects Sasha's presence in her soul.

_< Sasha> She says, simultaneously, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you" and "I won't protect you from the consequences of your cruelties"._  
_< Sasha> She blinks. Embers flicker from her eyelashes._  
_< HG> She looks at you, in the eyes. There is a bitterness in the turn of her mouth, and then -_  
_< HG> A shock lances through you._  
_< HG> I told you, once, that it was exceptionally difficult to keep other Nobles as Anchors because they could spontaneously wrench themselves free. They could eventually recover their notional Wound levels, Wound against your presence in your life, and you could not get them back unless you fought them to complete Defeat again. _  
_< HG> Rhonda Caseworth is plummeting to the ground, hands and feet unable to grasp -_  
_< HG> and you have lost your grasp on her._

#### Business With...

Rhonda attempts to remove Sasha from her Chancel, because she is completely done with this nonsense. Unfortunately, who should be standing in the doorway but...

Diane Spinnaker?

_< HG> Rhonda throws herself on the ground. "I am so sorry, Lady, I -"_  
_< HG> "Oh. Well, that simplifies matters," Diane comments, conversationally._

Sasha, whose tongue is currently so loose that it may as well be flapping helplessly in hurricane-force winds, immediately pulls Revolution on Diane and starts soliloquizing. She stands and spits in the face of Lord Entropy's hypothetical punishment of her, despises Diane in at least five different ways (I counted), and point-blank refuses to help Diane with anything whatsoever.

Then Diane says six words that leave Sasha utterly speechless.

_< HG> "I need help. With Anze Torquil."_

#### On The Next Episode...

Destiny washes over Diane Spinnaker.


	19. Interlude 16.5: Tea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small, optional fiction that explains why Session 16 ended as it did.

_meanwhile, from Diane Spinnaker's perspective_

The vast majority of the time, it doesn't even feel like a face anymore. It's just how things are. But there is no way to ignore or salve the twist in one's gut that comes from your Estate crying out in pain: no level of Aspect that can completely guard against it, no amount of incarnating yourself into Anchors that will let you pull away.

She knows who is doing it; she has asked her Estate. Anze Torquil is one of the foremost of the Strategists. It would be too dangerous, she reasoned. It would be unwise, to threaten the stability of the Society just for this one case, right?

She sent Vien out to take care of it. It didn't work.

She casts her mind about, for who else she could ask. The Falling Stars fight; they don't fix. She has strained her bonds with her Familia, in asking them to fight on her behalf so often for so long - though she has provided them so many things in return for their service, their patience is wearing thin, and the rules of the world will not let her change them to fix that. (Another would say that "fix" is entirely the wrong word for this, but she doesn't have that thought.) Maybe she will send her sword, but it has been so long...

There is a knock at the door. She waves a hand, giving the footmen permission to admit her visitor.

She knows Rumor. There are few others who move so freely through the Society. There are few others that speak so candidly to her - there is value in having someone who will tell you the truth, and she knows not to endanger that with the threat of punishment. And there are few others you might discover hanging from your ceiling fan, clutching a broom.

Though this time it isn't a ceiling fan, and what they hold is a single stalk of rhubarb, wrapped in blades of grass. They bow deeply. _Lady Spinnaker. I have some advice for you._

She has long since stopped questioning how, or why, Rumor knows these things. "Come sit," she says, gesturing to another chair. Rumor sits. She has one of the footmen bring a pot of tea and a plate of scones, and then dismisses him.

Rumor twists borage around one wrist. _I shall be blunt, here._

"Yes?" Diane Spinnaker takes her tea well-creamed but without sugar; she stirs and watches the cream well up from the bottom of the cup in dissipating clouds.

Rumor's tea is entirely black. They take a long sip, and then put it down. Slowly, they create a bouquet in their hands: plum-blossoms, chestnuts, bindweed. _It is the duty of a Noble to serve your Imperator before the War, and the War before yourself. Do not consider yourself an exception._

"It is being taken care of."

A white chrysanthemum; leaves of holly. _Don't lie to yourself. We both know you were just going to tell someone else to do it._

"And so what if I was?"

Rumor drops a fistful of columbine onto the table. Upon it, they carefully place a single dandelion. _If you continue to shirk your responsibilities, if you continue to make other people do the duty that is ultimately yours and yours alone, the revolution of Sasha Konstanian will continue to gain legitimacy._

Diane glances at Rumor; down to her slowly cooling tea; back to Rumor. She says nothing.

Yellow lilies and milfoil. _She has accused you of being so attached to your politics that you forsook your dedication to the War. Don't prove her right._

Diane does not need to take a deep breath to gather her resolve. She does not need to consciously put the steel in her voice. She does these things anyway. Perhaps it is an affectation, but it is good to remember that the younger generations care about such things, and so she consciously maintains the habit of legible body language. "I understand."

Rumor stretches a vine of ivy across the table, and stands up. _You know what the right choice is. Stay the course._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Diane Spinnaker is far older than British culture, but I have used it here as a stylistic choice, because it implies Old Power. My players then joked that she invented Received Pronunciation. Which might not be far from the truth, honestly.
> 
> The notion of someone breaking into your house, then hanging from your ceiling fan clutching a broom, is an old Homestuck fandom meme. Though the implications of Rumor actually being a person who would do this are amusing.


	20. Session 17: Destiny

_You can be someone that builds, or someone that destroys. Choose wisely._

\-- the reported last words of Simon Ordean, Viscount of Wings, before his Tempering

* * *

Today, the sword cuts.

#### Bindweed, Hattie, and Iceland

_< HG> The silence between Diane and Sasha stretches, like a piece of taffy._  
_< HG> "Why?" asks Rhonda. "Why are you here now, and not any of the times before?"_  
_< HG> Diane sighs, and withdraws a sheaf of bindweed from her satchel. "An acquaintance reminded me that Nobles have a duty to this world."_

Diane Spinnaker explains, to Rhonda and Sasha, that the reason she's there is because of the Estate attack. And because Rumor told her that she couldn't just sit there while her Estate was being subverted. Sasha continues to object, quite loudly, to Diane's presence, despite Rhonda sticking her in a lump of glass. (Her words cannot be silenced, after all.)

Maddie, meanwhile, is talking to the hat she captured off Anze Torquil, to see if she can get more information on Anze. The hat refuses to admit that it's anything more than a tool. Maddie has nicknamed it Hattie, and decides to spoonfeed it ice cream, because of course she does.

For her part, Sonja moves her author's family somewhere safer. ...Which is to say Iceland. Because the notion of the author of a poorly researched book about Iceland, being dumped into actual Iceland, is extremely funny.

#### Finally, A Sonja Monologue

Remember how Sonja asked Acadia, quite a while ago, to get her contact with someone who could talk about the purity of her intentions? Here it comes. And it's a visit by Diane Spinnaker and Rhonda Caseworth.

Sonja is none too impressed by the two of them showing up to her, but doesn't show it. But when they try to tell her about Heaven's idea of purity of intent, she returns their attempted spiel with her own monologue. She politely but firmly states that she believes Heaven's powers in general, and Diane Spinnaker's actions in specific, fail to fulfill Heaven's ideals, because they are unjust.

_< Sonja> "I have some feelings about the actions of some members of the Society." Sonja stands up a bit straighter, as best she can with missing an arm and a leg. She probably is using a cane to get around for the moment. "Things that have occurred in the past and some that are more recent."_  
_< Sonja> "I think we can do better than we are."_  
_< HG> "Define better," says Diane._  
_< Sonja> "We serve Heaven, or at least we claim to. Such claims ring hollow, however, if our own actions are unjust. They tarnish ourselves. Before anything we must ask ourselves 'are we truly doing what is good and right?', and I believe that is a question our fellow Nobles have failed to ask themselves. I am aware of what you used to do to your Anchors, Lady Spinnaker, and I believe it to have been unnecessary and a gross failure of justice. If we are incapable of reflecting what is beautiful and just, I think we cannot expect to serve as an example for others to compare themselves." Sonja glances at Rhonda. "Because people are watching us, Lady Spinnaker. They will do as they see."_  
_< HG> Diane looks like she's about to say something. Her mouth is slightly open, her finger pointed up -_  
_< HG> "I'm not putting up with this," says Rhonda, loudly. "Let's go find Maddie."_

Rhonda decides unilaterally that this conversation is done. Sonja, quietly irritated at being interrupted but not in a position to argue, points Diane - and Rhonda - over to where Maddie is. Maddie has taken up residence in a local kiln, because that's the easiest place for her to not burn down; she's trying to get some information out of the hat. (It is at this point that I mention that the hat can take people's minds over. You know. Like Cappy, from Mario Odyssey. This is what happens when you let me worldbuild.)

Since Maddie is inside the kiln and isn't about to come out, they have to enter said kiln to talk with her. There are bowls inside, because it's a kiln, in which Rhonda incarnates.

Diane offhandedly tells Vien to fetch her a fireproof cloak from the Robbers' vaults.

It doesn't work.

Because the Ravens and Robbers are cracked in two. And Vien was always a Raven first and a Robber second.

#### Revolution

Meanwhile, Sasha decides to send over a certain Anchor of hers to participate (?) in this discussion.

_< Sasha> A damask messer with a hilt of snakes lies on the floor by the shed._  
_< Sasha> Shift your perception sideways._  
_< Sasha> A woman sits cross-legged on the floor by the shed. Her wiry hair is half-shaven. Her skin is silver with dark bands woven into it. Her dress has snakes on it, writhing and coiling on one another. She looks fierce and beautiful and so, so tired. On her hip is a damask messer with a hilt of snakes._  
_< Sasha> "Hello Diane. Have you now learned that your actions have consequences?"_  
_< HG> "Who the hell are you?" says Diane._

Revolution - the sword-spirit that holds Sasha's _res_ \- passive-aggressively flourishes the fireproof cloak that Diane attempted and failed to retrieve. Diane, now thoroughly confused and frustrated, decides to just walk into the fire instead. Sonja takes the cloak and enters, and Revolution follows.

When asked why she's here, Diane Spinnaker, the Power of Illumination, pulls out a shattered lightbulb case. The very same sort of lightbulbs that shone through Maddie's fog, and the very same sort of lightbulbs that Anze Torquil has been planting everywhere. There is a substantial amount of verbal sniping and half-buried aggression, but eventually, Revolution demands that they get along, because they have a common enemy:

_< Sasha> "Perhaps she means to target both parties and rely on our internal squabbles to prevent us from taking action."_  
_< Sasha> "It would be an effective strategy under most circumstances. I move that we demonstrate that these are not most circumstances."_

Diane Spinnaker continues to be suspicious that this is an ambush or a backstab of some kind. Surely the descendant of the Foremost of the Dark intends to force her into a political move, right?

Wrong.

Seeing through Revolution's eyes into Sasha's soul, Diane's Major Divination of Illumination finds that Sasha wants to kill an Excrucian Strategist. And that Sasha intends to demonstrate the superiority of her philosophy... by refusing to betray Diane despite vocally hating every inch of her.

It is within this moment, this crack in Diane Spinnaker's philosophy, that Sasha's player completes a Destiny circle. The fullness of narrative weight levers Diane wide open. A stone is cast. A transformation is wrought.

_Diane Spinnaker will turn her back on the Society she helped build._

#### How It Has Always Been

And so:

Diane Spinnaker speaks of the way Noble society began. About the way that, in the earliest days before the War, enNoblement was a sacred contract. About how, even in those days, there were already pointless arguments. About the Society of Flowers, cracked to its core before it ever really began.

Sasha Konstanian reaches through Revolution. She talks about how their position demands that they be more careful to not exploit others, and not less. She talks about how the oldest ones have become cynical because of hundreds or thousands of years trapped within a seemingly iron-solid Society. She talks about how they may yet bring about the Fourth Age.

And Sasha Konstanian talks about how, in the end, should the demands upon one's morality become untenable, there is always one more option.

_< HG> "All I know is, I moved for power because everyone else did. I had to protect myself from those with power. As I gained power, though, I only ever found myself face to face with ever larger figures, with ever more power to wield against me. So all of us kept going. The Red Queen's race."_  
_< HG> She smoothes her hair back with one hand; looks pensive. "What else was I supposed to do?"_  
_< Sasha> "Die."_  
_< Sasha> It's said matter of factly by a woman who's considered the prospect more times than she would admit._  
_< Sasha> "If living means becoming hateful to yourself, have the decency to die. The Dark understands this. Even Aliki understood this, I think."_

There is a term, in some of Jenna Moran's writings on the Society of Flowers: the _mos maiorum_. How it has always been. How things have always been done.

The unwritten rules and traditions that seem inescapably solid until they have already been broken.

_< Sasha> Revolution draws. She cuts through Diane Spinnaker._  
_< Sasha> And she doesn't defeat her. Instead, from within, she shouts out a deep truth. Her blade cuts through the cords connecting Diane to her Anchors, each and every one, with the force of the Imperial._  
_< Sasha> (Treasure 5 + 4TMP for an imperial miracle of Revolution, the cutting blade that brings freedom.)_

Sasha Konstanian, or perhaps Revolution, or perhaps both of them, destroy the bonds that held Diane's Anchors.

It won't set them free, of course. They did get transformed into absolute loyalty. But it's a start.

#### Incidentally

Upon witnessing this, Sonja Aronsdottir grasps the blade until it cuts her, and formally signs to Revolution.

#### (extra scene)

I could not wedge this particular snippet of the monologue into the explanations above, but I think it deserves to be said.

_< HG> "Have you ever tried to explain to a four-year-old why the people in charge don't just put all the homeless people into all the empty houses? Parents teach their toddlers to share. Then, just as the children become old enough to act on it, they take the lesson back and teach their children to compete for the top spot. Because the real world is not so forgiving._  
_< HG> "But why is the real world not so forgiving?_  
_< HG> "Because nobody knows how else to live."_

#### On The Next Episode...

Another of Anze's anchors shows up in the Alps.


	21. Session 18: Sunglasses

_The Bay of Fundy has the largest differences between high and low tide, at 18 feet. The scientists say it's because of the geography of the area funneling all the water. But here, I'm going to tell you what really happened..._

\-- miracle-chaser, on Livejournal

* * *

Today, a relatively short session. Someone is wearing sunglasses.

#### Vien (again)

(Sasha is still missing, and as such Revolution is currently traveling with the party.)

They leave the kiln. The sigil of Revolution Diane adopts is a sword-shaped hairstick through a bun.

The fact that Sasha and Revolution cut Diane off is already having consequences: Vien is still here, after all. And she is _absolutely furious_.

_< HG> Vien spits, "What did you do to her!?"_  
_< HG> Diane looks, mildly, at Vien. "It would be best," she says, "for you to tell the Society what happened. Maybe they'll figure out which way the wind's blowing. Or maybe some of them will share your fury, and plot revenge, which is probably the best chance you'll get against us. But in the meantime, the War awaits."_

Vien stalks away. The rest of them think about what next to do against Anze. Maddie decides that now she's going to take _all_ of Anze's anchors - immediately reflecting this in a rephrased Bond on her character sheet - and calls on both Fog and Hattie to help her find another one.

#### All the land from here to the Pacific Ocean?

_< HG> HG: [The weird lights] getting installed means someone is doing the installing._

The place is in the Alps. Diane turns out to have a truly impressive number of airline miles stored up, and Aspect 0 means that spending a few hours scrambling up the mountain can be assumed to happen; thus we cut to when they actually find the next Anchor.

Underneath heavy rain, the party finds that someone has been driving stakes into the ground, with those weird Estate-breaking lights on top of them; the lights lead them to a lake, with a cabin next to it. Next to the cabin, someone with a park ranger uniform and triangle sunglasses is busily installing more lights. She yells, over the rain, that they need a permit.

_< Maddie> "I own all of the land from here to the Pacific Ocean, so I get to make the rules. You need a permit or you need to go elsewhere."_  
_< HG> Laughter._  
_< Maddie> "Come out here and let's talk like reasonable people. I'm sure we can come to an agreement."_  
_< Maddie> "I promise I won't bite."_  
_< Maddie> Maddie is crossing her fingers behind her back._

Sunglasses protests that they don't need one, because they are already a park ranger. Maddie retorts that she can make the rules as to what needs a permit because Maddie... owns... all the land... from here to the Pacific Ocean? Look, I don't know how it works either. It's immaterial anyway, since the shard blows it off.

Here Revolution tries to cut the sunglasses in half, fails because they're covered under Anze's ambient Auctoritas, and decides to follow through with the motion anyway for intimidation purposes.

#### Meaningless

_< Maddie> "Anyway -- I'm not actually here to talk about the permit. I'll let it slide this once." Maddie: "I want to offer your... benefactor... a wager, if you catch my drift."_  
_< HG> The park ranger turns around, and taps the temples of their sunglasses. When they turn back to face you, they have different body language and there's a different voice issuing from their mouth. You probably recognize it. _< HG> "Don't waste my time," Anze Torquil says, in a clipped annoyed voice.__

Maddie manages to convince sunglasses-person to manifest Anze Torquil - who shows up via Treasure-possession - and proposes a wager: they'll name words at each other until one person says a word the other doesn't know, and whoever names the last word wins. Maddie also unilaterally decides that if she wins, she gets the Anchor -- and if Anze wins, she'll get Maddie's heart.

Anze more or less goes "why the hell not" and names a word from some deep-in-the-Not language that Maddie would have no way to recognize. Maddie calls up Sonja for help. Instead of helping Maddie figure out the meaning of the word, Sonja takes another tack and cuts the symbol-referent connection on Anze's word, thus making it completely meaningless.

_< HG> Anze says it again. She looks briefly confused._  
_< Maddie> "...nice try, but gibberish doesn't count."_  
_< Maddie> Maddie does a ~~mic~~ nettle drop_  
_< HG> The figure slowly takes off the sunglasses, and steps on them to crush them._  
_< HG> You get 1MP. For the fact that you broke a Bond._  
_< Maddie> "Hey, No More Sunglasses. You got a name?"_  
_< HG> There is someone standing at the edge of the mountain lake. They sway slightly, and then fall._

Anze refuses to concede and breaks the sunglasses (which were the anchor - the person was incidental). Maddie scoops up the remains. Sonja and Revolution help carry the now unconscious previous host of the sunglasses back to the Chancel.

#### A Crystal Ball

When they return to the Chancel, Keith says that Sasha has some mail. He holds up a crystal ball. The Familia picks it up, and holds onto it for when Sasha returns.

The crystal ball contains a recording of Rhonda Caseworth meeting with Anze Torquil. Anze attempts to drag Rhonda back into a relationship that has abusive patterns. Rhonda refuses to go back to that dynamic, but also disavows any further involvement on anyone's side of the conflict. Both leave unsatisfied.

#### On The Next Episode...

Sonja Aronsdottir's destiny approaches.


	22. Session 19: Sonja

_No more stalling. No more training. No more love triangles, no more sandwiches, no more chess. There was nothing left for her to do but to walk into the future._  
  
_There was a sort of comfort, in that lack of choice. It meant that she couldn't do anything wrong anymore._

\-- _Sunstories_ , by Carol Paresi

* * *

Today, a long and emotionally draining session. And, in hindsight, one of the most important in the campaign.

#### The Retelling

Sonja Aronsdottir begins by speaking a miracle of aspiration. She no longer wants to be from a book that left her without a culture or a home to call her own. She reaches deep into her Author as a Treasure, and retells the way in which she came into the world.

_< Sonja> The miracle is this: her book? The badly written one that didn't have a shred of authenticity? That never happened. Not really._  
_< Sonja> With her Author as an anchor and her own miraculous nature, she speaks to the world that her book was written in a different way. A real way, one that would seem much more plausible to actually happen. One that puts effort into understanding the culture, that tells a genuinely compelling and heart-warming tale._  
_< Sonja> Because really, her story is hers to tell, not reality's._

It is a Word of Command. It wounds her deeply and fundamentally. She remembers both of her pasts and, as a Divine Wound with an Affliction, is now suspended in a position of active confusion across both simultaneously.

But Sonja Aronsdottir is not the only person who can speak an Imperial Miracle into the world. Anze Torquil sees Sonja's Imperial pronouncement upon the wind, how it is slowly rolling across the world and rewriting it all, and inserts a single, critical scene into Sonja's story:

A scene in which Anze Torquil was an oracle atop a mountain, who spoke a true prophecy, and gave Sonja the weapon that could shatter the evil overlord's only weakness.

#### Sea-glass

Keith decides that enough is enough, and tells the rest of the Familia to go retrieve Sasha from the glass. (Rhonda had hauled out the lump of glass containing a still-complaining Sasha, and tossed her through the airlock onto a continental shelf somewhere.) Sonja's in no fit state to go adventuring, and Maddie is too busy trying to piece the sunglasses back together to run off like that; Maddie's mother and Sonja's author go in their stead. Sonja reaches through her bracelet-book-incarnation on her author's wrist, and gives him the minimal spark of Aspect needed to go free-diving and push the glass slowly up onto the beach.

Once past the waves and told that her Imperator said to retrieve her, Sasha cuts a hole in the glass using her Revolution-sword and steps out.

_< Sasha> "I miss anything?"_  
_< Maddie> "My darling daughter got some broken sunglasses to go with her hat."_  
_< Sonja> "My protagonist rewrote my book, apparently."_  
_< Sonja> "Good times."_

It is at this point that the last one of Diane's Anchors - who turns out to be a woman named Annie - surfaces. Previously they had only seen her in the dress that glittered like a white sand beach; here they are on the white sand beach and she just bodysurfs in, instead. She is apparently Diane's wife, and informs them that she is signing to Revolution because Diane has signed to Revolution. This is not a question.

The Familia, despite misgivings about the fact that she was broken by Diane and therefore that this decision is coerced, let her sign on. She disappears back into the waves.

#### The Glasses Are Talking

Meanwhile, Maddie - continuing with her quest to claim all of Anze's anchors - pieces together the sunglasses, attempting to... rescuscitate them? In a mad science lab? By wrapping them in scotch tape? Look, this is Maddie we're talking about here, I don't know how it works either.

(Though the question to "how is she suppressing being on fire" is that she wraps herself in a fireproof blanket and manipulates everything through tweezers held between the folds, which actually sort of makes sense.)

_< HG> The first coherent words you get out of it are "Why the hell are you talking to me like a surgeon? We're in a science lab!"_  
_< Maddie> "Surgeons are totally scientists."_  
_< HG> It makes a frustrated noise, and clicks the other lens into place itself._  
_< HG> "Now kindly unwrap me from this tape before I try to smash your nose in."_

The glasses turn out to be 300% done with Maddie's shenanigans. They also turn out to know an untranslatable language from beyond Creation. Maddie immediately starts taking notes.

_< HG> As you unwrap the tape, the glasses wriggle out, then stop short, looking at Hattie. "[untranslatable], what are you doing here!?"_  
_< Maddie> "...wait. What was that you said?"_  
_< HG> "What, [untranslatable]? It means [continued untranslatable gibberish]."_  
_< Maddie> Under the fireproof blanket, Maddie's fog-fire eyes light up._  
_< Maddie> "I need you to teach me that word."_

#### The Seer on the Mountain

So, there is a mountain in remote Iceland - a real location, due to Sonja's miracle ensuring that her book now has far more historical accuracy - that Sonja climbs, in hope of finding the wisdom of Anze Torquil the oracle once more.

_< HG> She's there, exactly as you expected. Same robes. Same branch of hawthorn in her right hand. Same blindfold, tied on with an exceptionally elaborate knot in the back._  
_< HG> "You escaped your book," she says, quietly. "So, so did I."_

And so: here sits Anze Torquil, exactly as Sonja remembered. Anze maintains the fiction that she is from Sonja's world. Sonja, now thoroughly freaked out that someone from her book could be an Excrucian, tries to save her with words. Because she is made of words, and her words have never failed her before.

_< HG> "Kethredamen never did give you a choice," says Anze. "He just reached in and took you."_  
_< HG> "How do you know that someone who would do that is on the right side?"_

Only, this time words do fail her. Anze Torquil deftly parries every emotion, disproves every logical argument. Despite all of Sonja's best efforts at YA Protagonist speeches and acts, Anze refuses to listen to her. This is the first time Sonja has been truly unable to persuade someone to stop fighting. She begins to despair.

_< HG> Anze is obscured by drifting volcanic smoke. "Ages and ages of heroes and villains have come to me. All have perished in their time. I continue to endure."_  
_< Sonja> Sonja takes a step back. Tears threaten to well up in her eyes. "I don't want to fight you."_  
_< HG> "The right side of history shall prevail in the end."_  
_< Sonja> "There won't be a history left if you have your way. I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry, but I can't just stand by and do nothing." Sonja turns to leave. She clenches her fists tightly._

Sonja's impending mental breakdown is rudely interrupted by the fact that Anze Torquil sends her falling off a cliff.

#### Help

Anze Torquil cuts Sonja's footing out from under her, causing her to slip down a precipitous drop.

Meanwhile, Sasha reflexively reaches for her sword's spirit to come to Sonja's aid. And so Revolution swoops in, grabs Sonja as she falls, and asks what she was doing there. Sonja explains.

 _< Sonja> Sonja glances back where she had met Anze. "Anze was there. We spoke. She's from my book, she got taken out of it too."_  
_< Sasha> "She's not."_  
_< Sasha> "She stole your past and made it hers to manipulate you."_  
_< Sasha> Revolution actually has an emotion right now. It is _fury  
_< Sasha> "She will pay dearly."_

Revolution, now galvanized against Anze Torquil, puts Sonja down at the bottom of the cliff, and tries to call upon all the signatories of Revolution for help. (Offscreen, I'd let Sasha's player go recruit a handful of characters to add to Revolution, so there's actually quite a few more that I could have added. But for sanity's sake I didn't even try to fit most of them into this scene.)

 _< Sasha> let the entire New Society know that _here is an enemy of the world

A dog who also happens to be a Noble arrives. Anze Torquil throws the branch that she has in her hands and compels the dog to run off to catch it, immediately removing said dog from the scene. Punctuation's vultures circle, confused, because the sulfuric fumes of volcano smell more rotten and dead than Anze does. Nobody else is in evidence.

Revolution internally sighs and goes in for the kill herself.

#### A Fight on a Cliff

At this point we go into a detailed miraculous conflict that I can't weave into nearly as pretty a narrative as usual; here's the blow-by-blow.

Revolution, acting with Sasha's guidance, tries to cut Anze down; she finds herself running into the Auctoritas that Anze carries passively, and Sasha adds a Bond for Strike: she is trying to cut Anze down _because Anze hurt Rhonda_. (As has been established in the previous session, with the crystal ball recording where Anze demonstrated being Rhonda's abuser.)

Anze is cut through deeply, Revolution going through like butter. No effect seems evident, though that's because an Excrucian Strategist can Destroy having been wounded and just bleed off MP (which is actually serious harm to her; if a Strategist runs out of MP they have to disappear back into the Void).

Anze cuts out Sonja's ability to see and hear. Sonja Wounds against this, mitigating it to merely being blind. She stumbles around in a daze, struggling and failing to orient herself.

Sasha reaches through and attempts to do an Imperial Miracle of Revolution to destroy Anze's World-Breaker's Hand. A bit of negotiation and a "Wound" on Anze's part later, Anze is unable to use the World-Breaker's Hand on anyone _other than Sasha_. (Which is an effect Anze will wriggle out of later, because Strategist, but for the purposes of this conflict it's out.)

With one hand, Anze reaches through Sasha's mystic link - the trail of miracle that extends between Sasha's presence in this scene and her physical body - and uses it to remotely punch Sasha. (She's Immortal. It's fine.) Sasha takes this as a sign that she's doing something right, and grins.

But with the other hand, Anze Torquil picks up a small rock, and hucks it down at Sonja (who is at the bottom of the cliff that she is on top of) with unerring aim. It hits Sonja's skull at terminal velocity. Sonja, who is blind and disoriented, mitigates this down from a cracked skull into a concussion with another Wound.

#### Metal

Sonja, instead of shielding herself or trying to counterattack, screams up at the combatants to please stop fighting. They either don't hear, or pretend not to hear.

Anze Torquil hurls herself onto Revolution's blade. Revolution nails her through the heart...

...or, rather, the _bomb implanted in Anze Torquil's heart_. Which explodes, sending red-hot shards of metal in all directions.

Revolution, who cannot die or be hurt while there is a Power bound by her terms (which is an Affliction common to all _res_ ), is entirely unaffected by the flying flaming shrapnel. Unfortunately, there is someone underneath them that is still entirely flammable and has not made any move to defend herself.

A shroud of glittering hot steel falls through the air towards Sonja Aronsdottir, who stares, unknowing, at the sky. As it descends, she says, disbelievingly, "But I'm the hero..."

The shrapnel, still more than hot enough to ignite paper, hits Sonja's last Health Level. Sonja is Defeated.

Revolution, who can do nothing but fight, who is made of steel and destruction, who has no talent save a cutting edge: Revolution screams, and stabs Anze Torquil again and again until all that is left is a charred titanium skeleton.

Engraved upon it is three words.

_Actually a Doombot_

#### The Aftermath

At this point I briefly duck out and negotiate with Sonja's player as to whether she wants Sonja back; technically, by the rules as written, Sonja's player doesn't have any say in this owing to not having any Health Levels, but I wanted to be polite and ask. Sonja's player tells me that this is a final death. And so her fate is writ upon the world.

Revolution, stunned by the fact that she couldn't salvage this situation, constitutionally unable to help or heal, flees back into her sword-form. In lieu of forcing her to act, and with a vague hope of possibly one day making a mechanical knight, Sasha reaches through and anchors the Doombot. Through the Doombot, she examines the situation.

There is a body, charred beyond recognition, at the bottom of the cliff. Once upon a time it was Sonja Aronsdottir. Now it will never be again.

Prosaic Reality is already papering over the fight and explosion by proposing that this was a very small volcanic eruption.

Sasha tells her cellphone to notify Maddie of what happened. Maddie does not believe it.

Finding herself helpless in the face of this, Sasha breaks down into tears. Diane offers... well, she can't do sympathy. Understanding, then.

_< HG> Diane comes to Sasha, then._  
_< HG> "Hello," she says, quietly, kneeling down to Sasha's level. "I believe I know what she's doing."_  
_< HG> "She's reducing the number of pieces on the board."_  
_< HG> "It's what I would do."_  
_< Sasha> "Is this supposed to be comforting?"_  
_< Sasha> "No, it wouldn't be. Heaven doesn't do comfort."_  
_< HG> "You wanted to kill an Excrucian Strategist."_  
_< Sasha> "I wanted to."_  
_< Sasha> "Now I am going to."_

#### On The Next Episode...

A funeral.


	23. Session 20: Aspire

_The age distribution of Nobles is bimodal. Most Nobles die within the first fifty years of their Commencement; but those who make it past that are often a thousand years or more. There are few in between._

\-- _The Other Side of Reality_ , by Caitlin Katsaros

* * *

Today, there is another funeral.

Note that Sonja's player now plays Saul Ravid, Sonja's author. Thus all the logs will say "Saul" instead of "Sonja" from this point onwards. Same person on the back end, though.

#### The Nearly Empty Room

 _< HG> The pyre is wreathed in flowers and leaves. The body is laid in state atop a plank of appropriate local wood. Which, in this case, happens to be a mahogany door removed from its hinges. (This _is _Locus Kethredamen, after all.)_  
_< HG> Diane is in a plain white dress, with a single, narrow scarlet scarf tied around the waist. She comes to the front; flicks the bowl with a finger so it rings, once, twice, thrice._

Diane officiates the funeral, because she is the highest ranked of Heaven present, and because what else is she supposed to do? Sonja signed to Revolution, Sonja cut her hand on the blade and left a mark that yet trails mercury blood down Revolution's palm, because she saw Diane change for the better.

The funeral is sparsely attended. Maddie, with her mother. Sonja's author, Saul, with his wife. Sasha, who is using Aspect to punch through her Affliction that usually forces her to wear a 7-11 uniform, so she can look stately and put-together. A few Nobles that might be recognized, sitting quietly, eyes averted.

_< HG> Diane's eyes sweep the assembled._  
_< HG> "I will now retrieve the heart. Does anyone have objections?"_  
_< Sasha> Sasha swallows. "None."_  
_< Saul> Saul remains silent._  
_< Maddie> Maddie sniffs and raises her head. Her eyes are red and puffy. She shakes her head._  
_< HG> She turns to the body, and with a single, savage motion, she plunges her hand into Sonja's chest and retrieves a lump of carmine flesh. It drips._  
_< HG> She picks up the copper bowl with her free hand. As she places the meat inside the bowl, she retrieves a lighter from nowhere in particular, and flicks it on. She touches it to the candle. It springs to fiery life; the red burns with it._

To begin the ceremony: Diane removes the heart from Sonja's chest, places it in a bowl with a candle, and lets it burn.

_< Sasha> Sasha does her damndest not to cry. Revolution sits over her knees. The Raven perches on her shoulder._  
_< Saul> Saul clenches his teeth and bows his head. More than his grief, he is furious. This shouldn't have happened this way. It wasn't right. She deserved better._

And now Diane speaks the words that are traditionally used at the funerals for Powers of Heaven. And for the first time in many hundreds of years, she feels them.

#### To Stand, Fearless

_When the Excrucians came, they came to Heaven first. They menaced the Gatekeeper; but the Gatekeeper stood fearless, even in the face of a forest of swords, and refused to let them pass._

_"Ye who would enter the Gates," said the Gatekeeper, "be warned: if you expect to destroy us, you shall fail."_

_And the Excrucians struck him down, and carved the Gates in two._

_The angels braced against this charge, and steel rang against steel. "We refuse to let you destroy us. We shall fight you with every iota of our strength."_

_From every spilled drop of Excrucian blood, a rotten scar bloomed in the landscape. And one Excrucian said: "But your strength is finite."_

_But every single Angel that fell said the same: "Everyone who fights for our cause henceforth, in every future age, stands in our line." And it was thus that the Excrucians were held at bay until Attaris came._

_Our duty is to stand, fearless. Our duty is to fight with all the strength we have. Our duty is to stand in that line. And it falls to the Nobilis to remember this, always._

#### Eulogies

The first of the eulogies comes from an unlikely source: Megan Kieros, who had long since sworn off the ceremonies of Noble society and left to become a pigeon, who could not possibly have received an invitation to the funeral because there was nowhere to send it. And yet...

 _< HG> A certain gray-haired woman in a gray-feather cloak stands, and walks up to the speaking-platform. She tosses a sheaf of sage onto the body. She does not turn to face anyone: she speaks directly to the pyre, instead._  
_< HG> "She claimed that she was from that popular book - from_ Age of the Volcano _, you know? And obviously I didn't buy it, but I figured that she was at least trying to convince everyone and herself that she was Sonja Aronsdottir, so I trusted her, at least some._  
_< HG> "Then I felt the world shift and turn underneath me. The ripples in the aether spoke in her voice. 'You can do better, my Author,' she said; 'let me belong somewhere, give me a story that I can be truly proud of coming from.' And that's when I knew it was really her. Because that's what she always wanted to do: give other people the will to do better._  
_< HG> "But this miracle was abruptly silenced, just a few hours after it began. It remains permanently incomplete._  
_< HG> "She could've done so much more."_  
_< HG> A swirl of the feathered cloak, and then there is only a pigeon, flying away._

The second: Toby Houston, whose initial statement is an instinctive backhanded compliment, until Maddie demands that he say something better.

_< HG> "She was trying." Toby Houston does not bother standing. His voice commands respect without him having to ask for it. "She wasn't very good. But she was trying._  
_< HG> "It takes a great deal of personal fortitude to swim upstream, to decide that your Song does not mean what everyone says it does. She made it a ways in, doing that. Further than I would expect from someone of her age. She was even beginning to act on it."_  
_< Maddie> Maddie raises her voice. "No. That's not good enough."_  
_< Maddie> "If you think that's a compliment then sure, I will allow it. But you don't get to sit there like a bum. Stand up. Go to her, kneel, repeat what you said, and apologize."_  
_< HG> Toby stands up and begins to walk out of the room. Punctuation yanks his sleeve back, whispering something into his ear. He stops._  
_< Saul> Saul mouths a "thank you" at Maddie._  
_< Maddie> "Having worse manners than my daughter is not a good look," Grace adds._  
_< HG> Toby marches back over to the platform. He picks up his blossoms of wild rue and arranges them more carefully on the body. "It's better than anything I ever managed at that age."_

And then there is Acadia, who can't bring himself to say anything.

_< HG> The Power of Truth comes to the front of the room, with a blossom of evening primrose. He looks at everyone. He takes a deep breath; sighs; shakes his head. He sits back down without having said anything. The primrose falls in with all the others at the base of the platform, and is hardly distinguishable._  
_< HG> You might turn to look at him, then or later, and find that he has his head in his hands._  
_< HG> Is he crying?_

At this point, there are monologues from the other PCs, which I will not cut for space because I cannot hope to summarize them properly.

#### Pink Carnations

Says Sasha:

_"So, uh. Sonja Aronsdottir was a sister to me. Uh--" She coughs. "...So, I give a lot of speeches. I'm sure you all know that. But that's... not really, me, making those speeches. And... honestly the part of me that makes those speeches isn't really the part of me that Sonja touched. That's... this, discomposed pile of human feelings that's talking up here._

_"I am the Dark. They say I can no more know humanity than fire knows the wood. But Sonja... reminded me, of being a human, of longing for Heaven's grace. She reminded me of... she made me want to be better than I am._

_"When we were first starting out as Nobles, I was never going to revolutionize the world. I just wanted to burn it down. But-- uh, Sonja didn't tolerate that. And I hated everything but I didn't hate her. I didn't want to hurt her. So I... tried. And I kept trying._

_"Sonja knew who she was, I think. She knew what was right and true and beautiful. She wouldn't buy into a false image of what that was. She was a Heaven in and of herself. It took so long for what I was making to be worthy of her, but-- when she swore to the covenant, I knew what I was doing was right._

_"Cneph, what more is there to say? Sonja, I'm so sorry. I couldn't protect you. I couldn't make the world you wanted. I fucked up, so many times, and I don't know if I deserve the kindness you showed me so many times."_

_Sasha wipes some tears from her eyes and chuckles lamely. "Remember, uh, when I ruined that meeting between you and Diane during Lionel's death-day, and I wrote you that big apology, but I couldn't sign my name to it? I just said I was The Dark? I didn't know if I was Aliki or the Dark or-- well. I know who I am now, I think. I'm Sasha Konstanian, who was your sister. And I will miss you more than I can even say."_

_She tosses the pink carnations onto the pyre, watches the fire for a long while, and sits back down in tears._

#### The Gift of Fog

And then Maddie.

_Maddie gives Grace one last hug before stepping up to the podium. She takes a deep breath. "I've seen many of my brothers and sisters die, but I never missed the others as much as I'll miss Sonja._

_"She was something glorious. Just for what she was, she reminded you of how wonderful the world is, that a character from a book could walk around and be awesome like that. And then there's what she did, and what she was working for. I've never respected a Power of Heaven as much as I respected her. And Heaven is going to be so much less without her._

_"So I'll remember her, and her estate will remember her, and maybe something of her legacy will live on in my actions." She turns around, kneels, addresses the body. "I know it's a little late, but I've got a gift for you," she says._

_And there's a sudden flare of power as she speaks: "Forever after, the fog will remember you, Sonja. And it'll inspire people to your purpose."_

Maddie Clarkson, the Power of Fog, takes the entirety of her Estate, and - _wrenches_ it sideways.

_< Maddie> I am using a Major Motion and a Word of Command to change the properties of Fog:_  
_< Maddie> Fog_  
_< Maddie> ...renders the familiar strange (2)_  
_< Maddie> ...wraps you up (2)_  
_< Maddie> ...hides the world from your senses (1)_  
_< Maddie> ...reminds you that you can always do better (2)_  
_< Maddie> Maddie returns to Grace's lap and cries some more._

She makes fog itself an aspirational thing, something that speaks to everyone's ability to change and grow, something that has a purpose: to remind you that you can always do better. Meanwhile, the Word of Command Wounds her by making fog recoil from her touch; because what she just did was _terrifying_ to it.

#### The Vow

And finally, Sonja's author: Saul.

_Saul is silent for a moment before he steps up. "I uh... Wasn't sure what I wanted to say when I stepped up here. I only got to know her as a person for a few weeks. This isn't /my/ world. I was just brought in it by her. As her author I suppose I got to know her in a different way than any other author would their creations._

_"And she..." He chokes up. "She was the closest I ever got to having a daughter. Sonja wanted to save the world. Nobody may ever say she wasted one second of her life. It was all devoted to saving others. I'm not like you. I can't do the things you do. But all the same, I have my own gift for Sonja."_

_Saul turns and kneels down to the altar, tears streaming down his face. "Sonja my daughter, I swear this in your name: Anze Torquil will die. I don't know how, I don't know when, but Anze Torquil will die."_

_He's silent for a moment before he gets back up and sits next to his wife. Saul buries his face in his hands._

#### Becoming Something More

The Darklord Kethredamen has a proposal. Does Saul aspire to something greater than himself? Would he be willing to throw away everything he has, for a chance at that revenge he so desperately desires?

_< HG> There is a long moment of silence - not just the quiet of people at a loss for words, but complete and utter silence._  
_< HG> The brass whirring and air conditioners have stopped, at least momentarily._  
_< HG> Something snakes out from the wall with a lamprey mouth and chameleon eyes._  
_< HG> The Darklord Kethredamen asks Saul:_  
_< HG> Are you actually serious about that?_  
_< Saul> "Yes," Saul says quietly. "Somehow, some way. Anze Torquil will face justice. I'll find a way to make it happen."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha watches in... Apprehension?_  
_< HG> And at this his mouth opens wide, wider than a beachball, wider than a trashcan, wider than a doorway._  
_< HG> I can give you a way, he says._  
_< Sasha> "Saul. You don't have to do this yourself."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha is on her feet, her hands balled into fists_  
_< Sasha> "You can't ever go back."_  
_< HG> Keith's voice rings through your bones like an earthquake._  
_< HG> Give him the choice._  
_< HG> Let him decide for himself._  
_< Sasha> "It's not--" Sasha grits her teeth._  
_< Saul> "I don't care what it takes. I don't care who or what stands in my way." Saul looks at the mouth and gets to his feet. "Whatever it takes."_  
_< Sasha> Even through gritted teeth, Sasha's words continue. She looks shocked and appalled that she continues to speak. Wild-eyed panic lives in every word she breathes._  
_< Sasha> "There are other paths to power, other mysteries that won't take from you what makes you human."_  
_< Saul> "Who else if not me?!" Saul grits his teeth. "Somebody else might get it wrong. I've sold my soul before to go fight other mens' wars. At least this time it'll be my war." He turns and walks through the entryway with absolute certainty in his footstep._  
_< Maddie> With a wave of her hand, Maddie wraps a cloak of fog around his shoulders._  
_< Maddie> "Good luck," she says._  
_< HG> The mouth closes. It swallows._  
_< Sasha> The laughing, riotous sounds the Song of the Dark makes when a human overreaches their bounds and destroys themself echoes in Sasha's ears_  
_< Sasha> She sits down, slowly, swallowing a lump in her throat the size of an orange._

Saul makes his choice: and so it is writ upon the world.

#### An Ending, Or, Possibly, A Beginning

_< HG> A tide of unmistakable power and unbearable pressure rolls through you, as all of you Nobles involuntarily gasp - _  
_< HG> liberation,_  
_< HG> condemnation,_  
_< HG> ice,_  
_< HG> fire,_  
_< HG> silence,_  
_< HG> music,_  
_< HG> darkness,_  
_< HG> light._

With Saul's assent, then, the Darklord Kethredamen - the Imperator whose shape is everything wrong in humanity's eyes, the things that lurk in the shadows, the monsters in the dark - enNobles the grieving author.

_< HG> Saul Ravid, the Power of Metaphors, bursts out of Keith as if out of an egg._  
_< HG> The other Nobles present slowly stir out of their shocked silence._

Diane sits, dazed, until Punctuation slaps her to remind her that she's supposed to be officiating. Diane's response is not the usual sort of "how dare you touch me" - if anything, she _apologizes_.

She snaps her fingers and the funeral-pyre ignites instantaneously, and burns to ash. (Which is... not the usual protocol, but frankly, there's been a lot of being on fire going around lately, and the Kethredamen would like not to have to deal with any more for the time being.)

She looks back, and in the urn is not ashes, but -

_< HG> She turns to where the ashes ought to be. But all that is there is a single, perfect shard of crystal._  
_< HG> Diane takes a deep breath, and turns back to the crowd. "If... the guests could get in line? I'm going to give each of you some of the ashes, and ask you to scatter them in a place of beauty, whatever that means to you." She begins retrieving glass vials, and putting a pinch of the ash from the copper bowl in each. _  
_< HG> Toby gets up, his face neutral as always, and takes the first one. Punctuation is next; eventually everyone present who is not part of the Familia gets a bit of ash, and quietly files out of the Chancel._  
_< HG> Eventually there is only the Familia left. And also Diane Spinnaker, who leans over the edge and stares._

A shard of Heaven itself.

#### On The Next Episode...

Diane reacts to the shard of Heaven, and Sasha decides to go distract herself with preparations for killing an Excrucian.


	24. Session 21: Legacy

_The driver threw the car into reverse. "We're running over that goddamn moose."_

\-- _The Gospel Of Falling Off A Cliff_ , by Stefanija Atteberry

* * *

This session is long! The shard of Heaven finds a new home, Sasha prepares for war, and Saul and Maddie happen upon some interesting details about Aliki's death.

#### The Shard of Heaven

_< HG> Diane doesn't answer your question. She looks back at all of you, expression suddenly hardened. "Did you know about this?"_

The shard of Heaven - the jewel that is all that is left of Sonja's remains - sits in the urn. Diane recognizes it, and her somber mood immediately evaporates. Further discussion establishes that only Saul knew about the shard's existence; the other two have never seen it before. Saul explains that Sonja swore him to silence, and didn't yet have any plans for it.

Diane demands that they protect it with their lives; she's seen shards of Heaven broken before, and cannot bear the thought of it happening again. Familia Kethredamen swears that they will protect it with more than their lives: it is all they have to preserve Sonja's legacy with, and so they will protect it with their fates and their souls.

It is Maddie, of all people, who first proposes its eventual destiny.

_< Maddie> "Maybe if we plant it it will grow."_  
_< Saul> "I think Sasha, that you should be the one to bear it, at least until we figure out where to plant it." Saul looks Sasha in the eye. "She believed in your Revolution as a way of bringing things a little closer to Heaven. It seems fitting that you should inherit it."_

Everyone agrees, immediately, that the correct thing to do with the shard of Heaven is to plant it, and let it grow into something more. And Sasha has an idea - of where to grow it, _and_ how to protect it.

 _< Sasha> Sasha reaches out with her _spiritus dei _, takes the shard in her hand. Revolution stands beside her._  
_< Sasha> "If I fall, Revolution will endure. If you fall, Revolution will endure. Until the last of us bound by this covenant falls, Revolution will endure."_  
_< Sasha> "From this unyielding rock shall a new Heaven come to be built."_  
_< Sasha> "And what do they say about Heaven?" she asks, jackal grin on her face._  
_< Sasha> She rams the shard into Revolution's forehead. "Heaven invades."_

She plants it into something that, as a law of the world, cannot die or be hurt while there is still a Power bound to its terms. She plants it in Revolution itself.

And in so doing, she makes Revolution into more than just a weapon: she dedicates it as a conduit through which Sasha's determination and Sonja's idealism will transform the world.

#### An Eavesdropper

_< HG> Diane suddenly shuts up, casting her eyes about. She looks into one of the light fixtures, and it flashes brightly back at her._  
_< HG> She reaches a hand into one of those air conditioning vents that continues to blast entirely-too-cold air. She drags someone out by the ear._  
_< HG> "Rumor," she says, "it's not polite to eavesdrop."_

A certain someone did not openly attend the funeral, but was apparently listening through the air vents the entire time. Diane uncovers Rumor and dumps them on the floor, then waits for an explanation. But Rumor refuses to address the purpose of their visit, even after Saul demands an answer flat-out. Rumor says only that they answer to nobody.

So Maddie corners Rumor with a verbal riposte, forcing them into the position of either accepting slander or denying and destroying a rumor: they are, briefly, rendered speechless.

_< Maddie> "You know, I heard Rumor got their estate from a redtooth rite on a toad," Maddie muses._  
_< HG> Rumor seems like they're trying to reply. Uncertain flowers keep almost showing up on their hands like the pictures on a gambling machine's wheels. But they can't._  
_< HG> They can't directly refute a rumor._

Maddie pounces on this weakness, and this time successfully forces Rumor to admit that they were here to eavesdrop on the proceedings. Rumor claims that they needed to know what was happening. Diane stands her ground: Rumor _wanted_ to know what was happening. Rumor is suitably cowed by this show of Ancient resolve.

Familia Konstanian tells Rumor to cut it out. After another irritated response, Rumor finally complies. Diane attempts to drag Rumor back in by the ear to finish explaining what they were doing, only for Rumor to leave anyway, with a still-arguing Diane in tow.

#### To Business

Sasha goes to Locus Liana, and consults with Claudia on how to kill Anze.

_< Sasha> Sasha is back in her usual Look. Her sword has a very shiny new stone set in the guard. Her uniform has a coffee stain on the apron. A raven perches on her shoulder._  
_< Sasha> "I need help killing an Excrucian Strategist."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha doesn't bother with preamble or formality because Claudia doesn't give a s--t. They're alike in that way._  
_< HG> "All right. Who and where?"_  
_< Sasha> "Anze Torquil. We might be able to chose the battlefield. I have bait."_

Claudia requests the Raven's files on Anze Torquil via magical fax machine, receives them, and begins going down a mental checklist. What is Anze after? How much do they know about Anze's Bane? Do they want her gone, or permanently dead? What evidence do they have of Anze's actions and methods? How much control do they have over the terms of engagement?

_< HG> "You can push a Strategist out of the world by causing them enough grave wounds of any sort. But to kill them you need to induce a total contradiction inside them."_  
_< HG> "So we need to know as much as we can."_  
_< HG> She knows what she's doing._  
_< HG> It's probably reassuring, actually._  
_< Sasha> Considering the last time Sasha met this woman she got her ass handed to her, it's a welcome relief._

Sasha answers these questions: Maddie and her Estate; not more than the Raven does; permanently dead; they know of one confirmed death (Sonja) and one confirmed victim (Rhonda), from which they know that Anze isolates people, forges relationships, and then betrays; they have bait.

And how much, Claudia asks, do they know about her Anchors?

#### Mad Science

Smash cut to Maddie in her "science lab" attempting to Anchor hat, sunglasses, and doombot. (Sasha relinquished possession of the Doombot to Maddie, since Maddie was collecting all the other Anchors too.)

After a brief discussion, she Anchors Hattie, and gains Hattie's power of possession (but doesn't bother using it and perches Hattie on her head instead).

The sunglasses require a bit more persuasion. Maddie promises that once Anze is dead, they can leave her if they want. They attempt to explode instead, but Maddie interrupts the process (a miniature Flurry), casting the Treasure miracle to Anchor the glasses before any actual explosion happens. Now trapped under Maddie's control, they explain that they can do anything that starts with the letters A and R. Augmented reality. Autonomous research. Annihilation resistance.

 _< Maddie> She hoists Doombot up and tosses it into like... some kind of replica of Frankenstein's resurrection machine from whichever is Maddie's favorite iteration of _Cinema Frankenstein  
_< Maddie> (The machine doesn't actually do anything.)_  
_< Maddie> She flips a heavy lever. There's no lightning, but you could almost mistake the flashing lights for lightning if you crossed your eyes._  
_< Maddie> "Live!" she shouts_

Finally, Maddie hauls the doombot into a Mad Science Machine Of Some Description and pretends to revive it with flashing lights. On the rules end, Maddie's a bit low on TMP and has decided to just take it as a mundane Anchor for now. Because she didn't actually give it any miraculous energy, the doombot continues to just sit there, unsettlingly inert and silent even in the animist Mythic Reality: the self-destruct completely and thoroughly killed it.

_< HG> "You realize it's still dead, right?" the sunglasses say, from around your temples._  
_< Maddie> "Yes. But appearances matter."_  
_< Maddie> "When the time comes, it'll live again, for me."_  
_< Maddie> "Also I am absolutely going to take it somewhere to get it struck by real lightning when we have the time."_

All this done, Maddie texts Sasha saying that she's Anchored all three.

#### So it's Cappy, AR, and a Doombot

It is at this point that Sasha notices something peculiar about these stolen Anchors: they bear a suspicious resemblance to items from popular media. Sasha briefly tosses about the (admittedly harebrained) idea that Anze's vice might in fact be making said references. Claudia replies, in her usual dry and humorless manner, that the Order of the Falling Stars destroyed the Strategist dying of pop culture references a long time ago.

 _< HG> "We already killed that one back when he tried to eat _Pilgrim's Progress _."_

Claudia suggests that Anze might be using the pop culture references to have common points of cultural contact with the people who she is trying to influence, then asks to see Anze's Anchors: perhaps they might have useful tactical knowledge.

With Aspect 3 perfect timing, this is exactly when Maddie shows up in the doorway, wearing the hat and sunglasses and carrying the doombot slung over her shoulder. Maddie tells Claudia that "ARthur" (as she has nicknamed the sunglasses) is the most talkative. Claudia tries to ask the sunglasses for more information on Anze, but the sunglasses are snarkily unhelpful. (Claudia, for her part, continues to be stoic.) Eventually Claudia concludes that she needs to ask Toby for assistance with this technology stuff.

#### Book Learning

Saul has been spending his time trying to find more information on Anze Torquil in the books that line the Chancel's back corridors. After a few hours flipping through books, he realizes that he has miracles now and they could make the process substantially faster. He picks a Lesser Sacrifice of Metaphors. I try to warn Saul's player that this will probably have knockon effects, because if he removes the "demands effort for comprehension" from books, it will apply to absolutely everyone. But everyone else eggs Saul's player on.

_< Sasha> since when does familia kethradamen care about knockon effects_

Anyway: the Lesser Sacrifice makes all the books instantly comprehensible at a touch.

 _< HG> All right. You drag your finger across the spine of a book and suddenly find yourself comprehending everything in it._  
_< HG> Run a hand along a shelf and get the same._  
_< Saul> Now just to go touch every book in the chancel!_  
_< Saul> _That's... a lot of books _, Saul thinks to himself, suddenly realizing he might've gone a bit in over his head._

Saul and Maddie then spend most of the next few days running by bookshelves slapping every single book in Locus Kethredamen, using an Aspect 4 miracle to make their minds fast enough to comprehend the information. This is when I realize that that's two consecutive Powers of Metaphors who decided to read every single book in the Chancel, and we all conclude that this is just a thing that Powers of Metaphors do. So... what if it was also a tradition, for Powers of Metaphors to leave a legacy of diaries and notes for their successors?

Upon realizing that these diaries, which were previously written in code so deep that it would take a miracle to comprehend them, contain sensitive information, Saul realizes what he's done and hurriedly puts the "demands effort for comprehension" property back into the books of the Chancel.

What's the sensitive information, you may ask?

_< HG> Anyway, Saul._  
_< HG> You've found something interesting._  
_< HG> A few years before her death, Aliki suddenly dropped all her social contacts and became really secretive._  
_< HG> It looked really suspicious._  
_< HG> Everyone outside the Familia assumed it was a trick._  
_< HG> But they knew better._  
_< HG> Maddie would know this too, from direct experience._  
_< HG> Who else do you know that pulls people away from all their social contacts...?_

Suspiciously familiar circumstances surrounding the death of Aliki of the Dark.

Suspiciously _Anze-shaped_ circumstances.

#### A Refusal

All this investigation done, Saul brings Sasha and Maddie into one of Locus Kethredamen's maximally warded conference-rooms. Sasha asks: what's the occasion? Saul describes what he's found.

_< Saul> He motions for them to follow him, then he leads them into a meeting room. "I found out what killed Aliki."_  
_< Sasha> "Her cutting out her heart and feeding it to me."_  
_< HG> you're not wrong_  
_< Sasha> Sasha narrows her eyes. "I don't see the relevance."_  
_< Saul> "Anze Torquil did the same thing to her that she did to Rhonda. Cut her support networks away until she eventually self-destructed. That's why she got so secluded towards the end."_

Maddie puts two and two together: this must be why Aliki stopped attending everything. Anze must have peeled Aliki away from life, in preparation for peeling Fog away from Maddie herself.

Sasha refuses to acknowledge that Aliki could ever be a "victim" of Anze Torquil. She insists that Aliki was always in control, even to the very end. Saul starts trying to argue this, but then Maddie tells everyone to focus on the real enemy.

_< Maddie> "I don't think it changes anything either way. What we have to do is the same."_  
_< Sasha> "Three times, then, has she attacked this Familia."_  
_< Sasha> That divine fire burns in Sasha's eyes, coils around her words, singes her hair and lights up her blade._  
_< Sasha> "There will not be a fourth."_

#### On The Next Episode...

The Familia prepares to take the fight to Anze, and encounters an unexpected obstacle.


	25. Session 22: Searching

_She woke with a start, to darkness all around her; to a sensation of floating; to a silence that pressed thickly into her ears._

_"Is this what it's like to be dead?" she asked; but her voice was swallowed by the night._

\-- _Sunstories_ , by Carol Paresi

* * *

Today, Maddie goes looking for some other Anchor of Anze's, and Sasha receives an unpleasant surprise.

#### Strategy

_< Maddie> A scene of everyone gathered in a war room._  
_< Maddie> Maddie is standing at a podium (on a stool, obviously) and pointing at a blackboard as she narrates this. She's wearing a graduation cap on top of Hattie._  
_< Maddie> "Which leaves one more anchor for me to get my hands on before we take the fight to her."_

So, the first part of the session is mostly spent discussing what to do next. The most obvious answer, offers Maddie's player, is to go look for more Anchors. Both in-character and out-of-character, we try to figure out what the next Anchor of Anze's might be. Eventually everyone comes to the conclusion that, since every other one of Anze's anchors is a warped replica of something from pop culture, this one should be too. Eventually we settle on making it an elephant with wings for ears. You know, like Dumbo.

Anyway, Sasha, Saul, and Maddie argue about whether to even bother with the elephant. While Maddie wants to search for the elephant because she wants to deprive Anze of every Anchor, and Saul thinks that it would be fitting to take all her regalia before going after her, Sasha just wants to get this over with and find Anze now.

_< Sasha> Sasha looks even more tired than usual. One begins to question her dedication to the silver sword and black uniform bit, given the situation at hand._  
_< Sasha> "Maddie, do we really need this f--king elephant?" she asks._  
_< Maddie> "We need to cut all of Anze's support if we want to take her down for real."_  
_< Saul> "Agreed. Besides, it's what she deserves given... her methods."_  
_< Saul> "In the worst case we could question it. It's entirely possible that it would have valuable intel."_  
_< Sasha> "We have three of her Anchors already. While I'm all for poetic justice, I also want her dead."_  
_< Saul> "We all do, if you'll recall. I just think this is a good place to start." Saul crosses his arms._  
_< Maddie> "You guys can run off if you like, but I'm going to meet the elephant with your help or without it."_  
_< Sasha> "I don't really care if it happens in an aestheticly pleasing way or not. We have nothing to prove to anybody, and it's not like she'll appreciate the irony when she's doing whatever Strategists do when they're dead."_

It is here that Claudia, who is also there as a consultant on fighting Excrucians, brings up a very good point: poetic justice and irony actually work extremely well as Excrucian-killing tools, because, well, this is Nobilis, and Nobilis runs on mythic rules. Sasha shakes her head and lets everyone overrule her.

Now for the next question: how are they going to _find_ an elephant?

_< Sasha> "The last three we found because they were trying to f--k with us."_  
_< Sasha> I don't think she'll be throwing yet another Anchor at us."_  
_< Sasha> "...Regardless of how effective the last one was."_  
_< Maddie> "Right. This time we go on the offensive."_  
_< Maddie> "...ARthur, can you do Animal wRangling?"_  
_< Sasha> "Ranglin'."_  
_< HG> "... I'll allow it."_  
_< Maddie> Maddie sighs. "I'm bad with magic toys. This is going to take some time."_

#### Valerian

_< Sasha> I think while Maddie is furrowing her brow about how to make Animal Ranglin' happen, Sasha's discreetly asking Raven if it knows anything._  
_< HG> The Raven is notable by its sudden absence._

Sasha finds that she can't get information from the Raven because she can't find the Raven at all. Diane attempts the same and fails.

Dismayed, she explains: there is only one way for someone to get cut off from the Accords. Most of the rest of the Society has to gather at the Engine, and collectively disavow the existence of the people they wish to exile. The last time this happened was more than three hundred years ago.

 _< HG> "The Valerian Clause," she breathes. "_This _is a problem."_  
_< HG> "The Accords at Babylon contain a rule," she says, "that if a majority of Noble society could gather at the Engine and agree to eject someone from the Accords..."_  
_< Sasha> "...Wait, the majority? The... that's like a hundred and fifty people."_  
_< HG> "It's not that the majority has to agree. It's that the majority has to be physically present, travel away from their duties, leave behind their work."_  
_< HG> "That's far harder than just getting them to say yes."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha grins like a jackal, but some worry shows through. "...Mission accomplished, isn't it?"_

Sasha points out that, well, they did manage to unify Society.

Against them.

#### Sasha Puts Her Foot In Her Mouth Again

Meanwhile, Claudia of Constantinople, who can't be ejected because her soul is permanently bonded to the Web of Khedeb Neret and the Falling Stars, demonstrates that she is perfectly capable of pulling out and asking the Raven for the information they wanted. Upon seeing the Raven, seeing the Society she was in all her life, Diane Spinnaker breaks down.

_< HG> "... ah. Of course she'd keep hers, she's in the Stars, they can't kick her out of that! And yet here I am."_  
_< HG> Diane buries her face in her hands._  
_< Sasha> Unthinkingly, Sasha blurts out: "Where was this compassion when I lost Sonja?"_  
_< HG> She stands up, and at a brisk walk leaves the room. There are tear tracks on her cheeks._

Sasha puts her foot in her mouth again. Diane leaves the room in tears.

Saul follows, to try and console her. He tries to commiserate with her about losing friends, at which Diane snaps: she's used to losing friends to death, Nobles fight in a _war_. This is not losing friends. This is a collective betrayal which almost certainly included many people she believed to be her friends.

 _< HG> "I didn't _lose _them. They made an active effort to abandon me."_  
_< HG> "Probably Vien organized it. Mixolydia was almost certainly there, she's had her eyes on my position since 1885, the Master of Corn would be all too happy to knock Heaven down a peg, Mary, I don't know if Mary was there but if she's still crushing on Vien she'd probably go along with it..."_  
_< HG> The words rush out._  
_< HG> "I don't _know _! That's the worst part! They cut me off in a way that I can't tell who actually did it because I can't access the records anymore!"_  
_< HG> "Lady Acera probably wasn't that type but I can't be sure --"_

Saul silently comforts Diane as she panic-spirals about who might have participated in kicking her out.

#### The Beach Episode And The Japan Episode: A Two For One Deal

_< HG> Claudia can tell you where they last saw a flying elephant with huge ears that didn't belong there_  
_< HG> Okinawa_  
_< HG> Diane's infinite airline miles can get you there fine, you probably rent a car or something to where it was last sighted, you presumably poke around and ask people where to see the elephant you saw in the news the other day like a dumb tourist, etc etc_  
_< HG> After you have been pointed to at least three separate local zoos that contain only elephants with normal ears and no weird ones, you are somehow on a boat with a tour group going to an island._

I decide to skip over the less interesting parts of the search for a certain elephant, and put the PCs in with a tour group in Okinawa. After a brief digression about what they're wearing and how much they know about Japan (apparently Saul was stationed in a military base in Japan for a while, and Maddie has only ever watched dubbed anime), they arrive. They then immediately leave out the back door instead of going with their tour group, heading up a mountain for a better view.

_< Sasha> yeah okay I'm going to do a Persona 4 Lesser Enchantment of "targets the unusual" on a paper airplane from Sasha's limitless supply of mundane bulls--t from the 7-11_  
_< Sasha> then Sasha's going to toss it and wait for it to target the unusual_  
_< Saul> The Monkey's Paw grants your wish and the paper plane just keeps bopping Maddie in the head repeatedly_  
_< Sasha> Sasha snaps her fingers._  
_< Sasha> "This isn't 'unusual' as far as Nobles go."_  
_< Sasha> "I'm looking for unusual as far as elephants go."_  
_< Sasha> She scowls at the paper airplane._  
_< HG> The paper airplane wilts a bit, then flies away again._

Sasha uses a bit of Persona to get a paper airplane to point them towards the elephant. It takes a while, but eventually they find the elephant. Up a tree.

_< HG> It begs you, "Please don't hurt me."_

#### On The Next Episode...

Tying up some loose ends, recruiting the last few allies, and so on.


	26. Interlude 22.5: Cheshire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small, optional fiction about an event that happened in the background of session 22.

_meanwhile, under the Web of Khedeb Neret_

The afterparty, while not quite the scale of the full summit that they'd held the previous day, is still very much alive. The floor that had been filled with chairs the previous day, and ballroom dancing the previous evening, now hosts an impressively drunk moshpit. The deep red light of the Web that hangs above casts the scene into a darkroom twilight, only occasionally interrupted by pyrotechnics. There is a six-armed man with fish-fins for hair on the stage, playing an entire rock band's worth of instruments by himself. He is currently performing a cover of an old Dionyl folk song.

The entire scene strikes Cheshire as intensely odd. Yesterday they voted to exile several Nobles, including the once-foremost of the Powers of Heaven. And today they’re _celebrating_?

A man in a dupioni-silk dress shirt approaches Cheshire. “Not terribly interested, I see? Odd, for a Power of the Dark.”

“Rock and roll's no fun when everyone involved is effectively immortal,” Cheshire says. “No chance of someone dying of a heroin overdose.”

“Fair point.” The man extends his hand. “Toby Houston, Shepherd and Regal of the Internet, at your service. I believe you would be Cheshire of the Dark?”

Cheshire grins, and shakes Toby's hand. “Yep. The very one. In the flesh. Somethin' up?”

“Just wanted to ask you about your speech yesterday. Any particular reason you'd attend just to dispute the proceedings?”

“Someone's gotta be the devil's advocate around here, and I didn't see anyone else doing it.”

Toby Houston shakes his head. “That's not your real answer.”

Cheshire stares at a nearby mountain, its black bulk stenciling out a starless webless gap in the sky. “She reminded me of Aliki. And - d’you remember the last time the Valerian Clause was invoked?”

“I’ve only been here for fifty years.”

“The Valerian Clause, the Rule of Rupture... it’s one of the final clauses of the Accords. And it was never meant to be used for factionalism. That’s why so many people were required to come here physically, to touch the Engine’s tree, to speak the words. No one person could gather so many. Not until...”

“Vien?”

“Nah,” Cheshire says. “Sasha.”

“And that’s when you realized you had to...”

Cheshire shrugs. “This lack of solemnity is just _wrong_. The last time we did a Valerian, it was back when the Five Hundred Years were stolen from the world and sold to the Excrucians. It wasn’t a party. There didn’t need to be a party, to attract everyone. Not after that. Everyone knew what had to be done. It may as well have been an execution.”

“So you’re saying that Vien holding the party of the century here was just a bribe.”

“For some of them, yeah. For others... I mean. I guess they put their hands on the tree because they felt betrayed. By Diane, or by Aliki. For abandoning us like this.”

“To the best of my understanding,” Toby Houston says, slowly, “Aliki’s departure was not entirely of her own volition.”

Cheshire squints. “The hell are you talking about? She was the foremost of the Dark. She did whatever she wanted.”

“You hear about Anze Torquil’s recent reappearance? The deaths of the Emperor of Ice Cream, the Baroness of Metaphors? She’s been targeting the Familia Kethredamen. Picking them off. I’m pretty sure she just went after Aliki first, getting her out of the way.”

“Six years before she died,” Cheshire says, her diction suddenly precise and sharp as knives, “Aliki of the Dark told me that I was never really her successor. That all I was to her was a pretty face. That sucking up was the only thing I would ever be good for.”

“That was after -”

“And _that’s_ why yesterday I stood against them all, my hands clasped in front of me instead of laid against the Engine’s tree, and told the rest of Noble society that I’d sooner stick my face in the dung-pits of Hell than kick out an entire _res_ ’s members just because of one person’s crimes.”

“Anze has the ability to force people into isolating themselves with -”

Cheshire is suddenly shouting. “I just tanked my reputation trying to do what I think is right and now you’re here telling me that all of this was based on a lie!?”

Toby Houston looks around, as if searching for somewhere to hide. But it’s just sheer cliffs and cobblestone. “Let’s be reasonable -”

“F--k being reasonable! That’s what you Lighty types always say! Let’s just forget about the trail of broken lives we leave behind for some greater good that they won’t ever see!”

The Shepherd of the Digital Cleave is silent. He looks upon Cheshire with a new respect.

“I just -” Cheshire sighs. “Your sister Punctuation, she’s in the Revolution, right?”

A nod.

“It’s not her fault that the Robber-and-Ravens cracked in two. It’s not her fault that Sasha broke Diane over her knee. It’s _certainly_ not her fault that Revolution isn't this beautiful equal society that Sasha keeps trying to promise without following through on. And yet everyone here decided that she should suffer from Sasha’s guilt.”

“So you’ve seen that Society can do this to people, and that you don’t have enough influence to stop it.”

“I don’t like it, but yes. So I sympathize with their cause. Even if I hate Sasha's guts.”

Toby tilts his head. “Have you considered... joining Revolution, then?”

“No. Giving it up and just throwing everything into even _more_ chaos would be stupid. You been watching Heaven’s Powers lately? They’re running around like headless chickens.”

“A valid choice, I suppose. But I’ve got contacts with them, so if you ever need something from their side, let me know.”

Cheshire smiles. “One of these days I just might.”


	27. Session 23/24: Loneliness

_Did you know?_

_Ten years ago, a city of ten thousand people disappeared into the Kalahari Desert, and we forgot they existed. The only evidence of their existence is their public art, which includes twenty swirly abstract bronzes that turn out to be replications of physics simulations of water turbulence, fifteen statues of small children with bears for heads, and one that looks like a marble bust of Thomas Jefferson from a distance but, up close, is made entirely of hands with raised middle fingers._

\-- did-you-kno.mumblr.nob

* * *

Today, things converge.

Session 23 was extremely short (it was, like, one scene long), so I have rolled it into session 24 for the purposes of these logs.

#### The Lonely Elephant

_< HG> There's an elephant. In a tree. Because of course there would be an elephant in a tree, where else would you find an elephant?_

The elephant the PCs found in the previous session explains, timidly, that it was sent to keep watch. And then continues: Anze told it that it wasn't even allowed to use force in self-defense. The PCs are about to explain that they just want information on where Anze is, but then Maddie decides to announce that they're going to kill Anze.

As is usual for Anze Torquil's other victims, the elephant has no family or friends, has been completely isolated, and shows more than a few signs of being emotionally abused. Maddie says that she'd be willing to protect the elephant if it lets Maddie take her away from Anze, and Sasha promises that it has friends on the other side: all of Anze's other former anchors. In response, the elephant declares that it is not allowed to have friends. Sasha vehemently disagrees with the idea that someone might be "not allowed" to have friends.

 _< HG> "I can't have friends."_  
_< Sasha> "Wait wait wait."_  
_< Sasha> "Who the f--k says you can't have friends?"_  
_< Sasha> "I have friends, and f--king look at me."_  
_< HG> "You're _allowed _."_  
_< Sasha> "We don't give a single solitary s--t about 'Allowed' in this establishment."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha taps the handle of Revolution affectionately._

They drop the "friends" angle and go for Maddie's promise to keep the elephant safe, instead. Elephant is skeptical, because nobody around them keeps any promises. After a bit of discussion, though, the elephant voices a forbidden thought: Anze said that she'd let up on the emotional abuse if it kept to her orders... but Anze Torquil doesn't keep _her_ promises either, so what's the point?

So they tell the elephant about all of the promises they made in Sonja's memory. And how they're still looking to keep them now. And, finally, that Saul promised to kill Anze, so pointing them towards Anze would help them demonstrate their willingness to keep that promise.

_< Sasha> Sasha taps her feet. "So, uh. When our friend died, we all made her a promise."_  
_< Sasha> "Maddie promised to write her into the nature of Fog, and so she did, even though now Fog is kind of afraid of her."_  
_< Sasha> "I promised to grow a new Heaven in her name, and I burned that promise into my own dream."_  
_< Sasha> "...And Saul promised to kill Anze. We're kind of working on that now."_  
_< Sasha> "So if you want to see us fulfil a promise, it'd help if we knew where she was."_

Eventually Elephant concludes that Anze didn't tell it to _stop_ watching Familia Kethredamen, and didn't tell it to keep her position secret. So it decides to go with them, the better to "watch" them, and point out the right direction.

#### Pigeon (Reprise)

A bit later, the PCs are accosted by a pigeon. Sasha, after recovering from the disorientation that the bird on her shoulder is not the Raven and cannot do Raven things, confirms: every last signatory of Revolution has been ejected from the Society of Flowers. And thus: Megan Kieros, currently incarnated in that pigeon on Sasha's shoulder, congratulates them.

_< HG> "They didn't even manage that many for me. Consider me impressed."_

Then Megan says that she'd like to assist them in killing Anze Torquil.

_< HG> "I think..." She looks at Saul, pensively, through a pigeon's beady eye. "I'd like to help you with Anze."_  
_< Saul> Saul blinks. "Huh. That's unexpected, though hardly unwelcome."_  
_< HG> "No promises on actually signing on, you understand. But I'll make the attempt, and then we'll see after that."_  
_< Saul> "Absolutely. Anything you can do will be helpful." Saul smiles. "Welcome aboard."_

Sasha asks Megan if she knows anything about Anze Torquil. Megan replies that she saw Aliki die. Sasha stops short.

_< Sasha> Sasha opens her mouth. Closes her mouth. Opens and closes it again._  
_< Sasha> "New York," she says out of nowhere. "F--king New York. Of course you saw that."_

Here Megan Kieros briefly muses on the experience of spending those last few months and years watching Aliki self-destruct under the influence of Anze Torquil: after a while it stopped being about the schadenfreude of seeing someone powerful brought low, and just became sad.

Sasha begins winding up for a monologue about how no, she is certain that Aliki's agency wasn't overridden by Anze, that Aliki gave her heart to Sasha of her own free will, only to be interrupted. Megan explains that Aliki's death blindsided Anze, and made Anze retreat for a year trying to repair her plans.

_< Sasha> Sasha grins. "THAT sounds like the Aliki of the Dark I knew. For er. About a hundred seconds."_

#### Bane

It is here that Megan reveals one more thing: at the moment Sasha was ennobled, Anze Torquil had nearly finished isolating Maddie Clarkson from all social support.

_< Sasha> "So. What, throwing Rhonda at me, Flowering Diane and Maddie, whatever the f--k she was doing with Hattie-- that was, uh, her flailing about like a chicken with its head cut off?"_  
_< HG> "She was almost finished cutting Maddie off from everyone when you came up."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha sputters, her confident facade beaten into small pieces and scattered on the wind like dust. She looks at Maddie._

Maddie puts on a brave face, claiming that even if she didn't have friends (she didn't) she totally had admirers, but Megan retorts that her "admirers" were either fair-weather friends or basically powerless. Sasha, for her part, is suddenly intensely regretting not using the Sight on Maddie when they first met; she says something limp about how Maddie looks fine now, but nobody's confidence is restored in the slightest.

Maddie, reading the mood, tells everyone to _focus_ , and points out that they all knew Anze Torquil was after her, so this isn't new information.

So Sasha asks if Megan knows anything about Anze Torquil's death, and Megan points out that Anze's favorite tactic - her _only_ tactic, really - is forcing people into total social isolation. This is when everyone realizes the direction of the trail I've been leaving them this entire time:

This Strategist has the power to force her Bane onto others to manipulate and torment them; twists her own curse into a source of dreadful power.

Anze Torquil is dying of loneliness.

#### Practicalities

So everyone discusses strategy: first up, how do they prevent Anze from cutting herself apart and fleeing rather than dying? Maddie says she can use fog to wrap Anze up and prevent her from seeing any escape; Saul offers that since the pen is mightier than the sword, he has what may as well be the Soul-Carving Pen; and Sasha --

 _< Sasha> Sasha suddenly says a word so vile I cannot bear to repeat it._  
_< Saul> (Saul quickly covers Maddie's ears so that she doesn't hear the whole thing.)_  
_< Sasha> "I sure _used _to have an Anchor with powers about containing things."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha is simultaneously irate and despondent._

Sasha once knew Rhonda. Rhonda is the Duchess of Cups. Cups contain things. The most straightforward way for Sasha to contain Anze Torquil would have been to get Rhonda to do it... but alas, Sasha has completely ruined her relationship with Rhonda. So Sasha goes over her other options. Revolution cannot be used for containing anything because its whole mission statement is about breaking free. But she does know someone who has a great deal of experience killing Excrucians.

_< Sasha> Cell Phone texts Claudia [anze bane == loneliness?? how 2 kill]_  
_< HG> [that actually makes it harder stop]_  
_< HG> [if we go physically beat her up that means she stops being lonely stop]_  
_< HG> [wed need to hold her down stop]_  
_< Maddie> "Aha! I was right!"_

Claudia (who is ending all her text messages with "stop" telegraph-style because I thought, correctly, that it would inject some much-needed levity) points out that if they go after Anze to kill her, Anze will no longer be lonely and thus will not be naturally dying of her Bane. She suggests that someone hold Anze down while everyone else wails on her with large miracles.

Maddie offers that she can use fog to hold Anze down, to which Claudia points out that since Maddie's the one Anze is after, Maddie will be at the center of the fighting. Sasha jokes that she's the greater threat here, but concedes the point.

_< Sasha> Sasha: [i was sort of hoping she'd be worried about the irate dyke with the messer and a grudge]_

Claudia says she'll consult the Stars' tactician for more specific advice, and exits the scene just as Maddie starts sticking "stop" to the end of the sentences she is saying _out loud_.

#### Appear

Sasha has her cellphone text everyone who might help them with the entire Anze thing.

_< Sasha> [WE'RE KILLING ANZE. CANCEL YOUR PLANS.]_  
_< Sasha> [LAST TIME WE TRIED THIS TWO PEOPLE SHOWED UP AND ONE OF THEM I'M SORRY TO SAY WAS DISTRACTED BY A F--KING STICK]_  
_< HG> Toby: [I'll call who I can]_  
_< HG> Punctuation: [gimme 24h so I can extract myself from my current duties ;;]_  
_< HG> Acadia: [Understood. I'll swing by your Chancel and you can give me directions from there.]_  
_< HG> Diane: [Go f--k yourself.]_  
_< HG> One of these is not like the others._

Diane Spinnaker, still frustrated and stewing in social rejection, tells Sasha to shove it. Saul sends a sympathetic message with Sasha's apologies, and in return Diane says that if Sasha really wants to apologize she can do so herself. So Sasha apologizes to the illumination of the sun, and Diane will hear it because she is the Power of Illumination.

Here Diane appears via sunbeam, drags Sasha into the forest, and starts venting her loneliness and anger. Sasha... well, she can't exactly say she regrets what she's done, because she doesn't, but she can say that she regrets that the waves she cast have hurt Diane so badly.

 _< Sasha> "I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this whole affair but _I didn't mean for this to happen _."_

They discuss their respective backgrounds. Sasha talks about how she was let down by society-with-a-lowercase-s over and over again. Diane talks about how she was once the princess of a kingdom that no longer exists.

Then Sasha offers to release Diane from Revolution. Diane refuses, and says that the Society wouldn't take her back anyway, not after what she did.

 _< Sasha> Sasha sighs. Lays back on the dirt. "You could renounce the res, you know. I'd be pissed but I don't think anyone else would blame you."_  
_< HG> "And would they take me back, in the Society of Flowers?"_  
_< HG> "There's no reversing the Rite of Rupture. I'm sure they could make an exception, but the _mos maiorum _is against it and it would take me destroying you to redeem myself. Which even now I find myself loath to do."_

#### Letting Go

...You know, I'm just going to reproduce the rest of this Sasha Monologue. (I have removed, condensed, and/or rephrased a handful of lines to tighten things up, but most of it's here.)

 _< Sasha> "Look, Diane. I'm going to tell you something you already know."_  
_< Sasha> "You're not mad at me. Well. Scratch that. You probably are, actually. But the actual problem at hand isn't me."_  
_< Sasha> "What happened is that doing what you want and doing what was _mos maiorum _have run into conflict for the first time in a long-ass while. Everyone you thought was with you when you were following the rules turned on you as soon as it became politically convenient. You feel let down by Society and your friends, probably including me since I was such a b-tch to you when the news broke."_  
_< Sasha> "The..." She shakes her head. "The reason I created Revolution instead of just turning into a bird and hanging out with Megan Kieros, all respect to her, is because I got pissed. I saw how Society treated us. I saw how Society treated, say, Acadia West [when he couldn't hack the Code of Heaven]. How they treated Rhonda because of what Anze had done to her. How, no offense, _you _treated your Anchors. And moreover?" She wipes her face. Dirt coats it. "How they treated Sonja."_  
_< Sasha> "Sonja was the nicest person in Creation. All she wanted to do was be the hero. And because I am [a terrible person], she got punished for it."_  
_< Sasha> "For about ten minutes after Sonja's funeral, I thought-- maybe, maybe there can be peace. Maybe I could take Revolution to Misenchronic Engine and fix whatever's wrong with it and we could be just people, we wouldn't have to squabble for power, we could focus on saving the world." Sasha gestures and waves. Tracks of tears carve lines on the dirt on her face. She swings about a placid Revolution to prove her point. "I thought, we have Diane with us. Surely, surely they'll see that I'm right. Instead they decided to [declare all of us socially dead]."_  
_< Sasha> "If they'd demanded I join the Snakes, or the Stars, I would have welcomed it. Hell, I'd have faced down Entropy again with a smile. So that wouldn't have [been a punishment]. The only thing they could do to hurt me was to hurt [everyone around me]. So they went after you the same reason they went after Sonja. And I am so f--king done with people being hurt in the name of stopping me."_

Here they briefly talk about how Cheshire of the Dark (see [interlude 22.5](https://jennafans.dreamwidth.org/14201.html)), the heir to Aliki's old position as the first of the Dark, stood up to the rest of Society and told everyone that punishing that many people for one person's crimes was unacceptable. Sasha files her away, as someone worth talking to after all this Anze business is over.

And finally, _finally_ , Diane agrees to help.

_< HG> "Thank you," she says. "For that."_  
_< HG> "For taking me seriously."_  
_< HG> "You'll have me," she says. "And - "_  
_< HG> She reaches into thin air with both hands. A smallsword materializes, its sheath the deepest of sky blues, gilt flowers twining down its length. "You'll have my sword."_  
_< Sasha> Sasha smirks, tips her hat, and walks back to go kill Anze Torquil._  
_< Sasha> Revolution taps Diane on the shoulder._  
_< Sasha> "...Now that we aren't feuding, Diane. I need you to tell me about Heaven."_

#### On The Next Episode...

A descent, and then an ascent.


	28. Session 25: Descent

_"I thought," he shouted to the sky above, "that you made a promise!"_

_"I did," the sky said, as it began to rain. "Pity you weren't there to receive it."_

\-- _Sunstories_ , by Carol Paresi

* * *

Today, everyone falls.

Okay, so this week's format needs some explanation. I modified the form of a Ritual, from Chuubo's, to give more structure to what would otherwise be a free-for-all. This concept, of using a Ritual rather than regular Nobilis play for the most consequential fight in the game, is stolen from that time [ geostatonary did an ending-ritual for a Nobilis game I was in](https://geostatonary.tumblr.com/post/188285865063/end-of-geogelion); I really liked the result, so I did it myself.

[Here's the instructions for my ending-ritual.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRPW5D7HctM6lQz9zyMszJbEeWNujd7y3KIN2fZO05HHp09cRFBQNPSMh-Vkj1Mwzu4YWpk4QdFpVDV/pub) I don't expect it to be directly usable in anyone else's game, but go ahead and borrow as much stuff as you want from it.

Anyway, enough words. Time to end this all.

#### Vien (Reprise)

 _< HG> It is dawn._  
_< HG> Well, it is _probably _dawn. Mist and clouds drift across the face of the Earth, and there's nothing underneath them but you and yours._  
_< HG> Where you thought Anze was, there is only Vien._  
_< Maddie> Maddie leaps down from the elephant's back. "Where is she?"_  
_< HG> The fog swirls out from around you as it flees Maddie's presence._  
_< HG> _Fog inspires you to be better than you were _._  
_< HG> "I did exactly what you told me to do," Vien says, quietly, from across the heather. "I told everyone. Some people accepted it. Some people plotted revenge with me."_  
_< HG> Diane turns, and looks back at you. "I - "_  
_< HG> Vien is shouting, now. "I did everything you said! What do you want me to do now?"_

Anze Torquil does not appear. Vien, Diane's former Anchor, does.

Vien never did bother to free herself from the influence of how Diane once conditioned her, and nobody else tracked her down for it either. She was unflaggingly loyal: she took Diane's speculation about what the Society would do next, to try to stop the Revolution, and made it a reality. And now she wants Diane back.

Maddie demands to know where Anze Torquil is, and someone behind her taps her on the shoulder. And here: Anze Torquil.

_< Maddie> Maddie whirls, Vien forgotten. She's expecting Anze._  
_< Sasha> Sasha swings her sword at her immediately._  
_< HG> The face of a porcelain doll. A jauntily tilted fascinator of black ribbons and veil-mesh. A cravat ragged-edged from age, boots polished and scuffed and polished and scuffed again._  
_< HG> She catches Sasha's sword on a buckler. "You rang?"_

Vien was brought here because Anze Torquil wanted Diane out of the fight, and knew that Diane's lingering emotional entanglement would prevent her from acting for a few crucial seconds. This purpose now served, Anze kills Vien, tells Diane that she is utterly alone now, and draws her sword.

#### The Emptiness of the Heath

It is at this point, trying to write these summaries, that I realize I _can't_ summarize what comes next. That I have to put it all here. If you've been reading this for this long, you probably care about these characters enough to read all of this. So.

I know in the past I've made every excerpt italicized and every commentary bit regular, but since like 90% of the rest of the post is going to be straight logs, I'm going to invert this, because otherwise it will be wall-to-wall italics. I'm also going to leave in the mechanics talk and side comments.

_So, with that formatting note out of the way, here we go._

<Saul> Saul grips his pen tightly, his knuckles pale. A familiar knife and spool of twine are strapped to his belt.  
<Sasha> Sasha is hard-lined and furious. Her sword is an extension of herself. She and Revolution share the same heart.  
<HG> Diane Spinnaker kneels on the ground, breathing heavily. She reaches for the sword on her belt, but only finds the sheath. She rips the sheath off the belt; holds it in both hands. "You're not going to -"  
<HG> Anze Torquil waves a hand and cuts the sheath into pieces too.  
<HG> The flash of light that follows is brighter than any lamp, brighter than lightning striking in front of you, brighter than the sun. And suddenly you don't know where you are.  
<HG> A moorland stretches out in all directions, the edges too shrouded in mist to see.  
<HG> You may now take one Ritual Action each.  
<Maddie> _Take an action of your own that cannot possibly be enough to stop her. Why did you try? How does it hurt her?_  
<Maddie> Maddie screams the scream of a child who can't accept what's going on but has no power to change it. She throws herself at Anze, two goals driving her Aspect 3 miracle of Kick Bite Wriggle Scream: _take her sword_ and _hold her down_. Because this fight can't be won with just physical attacks, but taking her things and pinning her is the first step.  
<Maddie> (1 AMP for the miracle)  
<HG> You and she are bowled over, tumbling end over end while you struggle to prise the sword from her grip. She holds onto the sword until her knuckles are white, but you have her down. For a moment.  
<Saul> _Remember someone who isn’t here, and do something that you think they would have done. Why can’t you match them? Why do you try anyway?_  
<Saul> What would Sonja do here? Saul knows he could never replace her, not really. He couldn't hope to do what she could. Sonja would probably try to save Diane. That would be the good and heroic thing, right? The Heavenly thing? But Saul isn't Sonja. That's not going to stop him from trying. Anze is using _some_ sort of destructive Miracle to destroy Diane and Saul knows that if he tries hard enough, he could write away that Miracle, at least for now. Saul opens the book of Anze's life and writes away whatever Anze is currently doing to Diane through using his Soul-Carving Pen. (2 TMP - one for the cost of the miracle and one for strike)  
<Sasha> _Defend others against what Anze Torquil is doing. What couldn't you shield them from in the past? What harm do you now take on their behalf?_  
<Sasha> Sasha is stalwart. She is a steel wall. That wasn't enough to save Sonja, was it? It might not be enough to save Diane.  
<Sasha> But it might be.  
<Sasha> She gathers the fragments of the Imperial. _You will fight me, and you will leave them alone. This is a duel, and I will be your foe._  
<Sasha> She focuses all of Anze's hate and rage onto herself. Fire swirls in her eyes. If Anze wants to get to her comrades, she will have to go through her first.  
<Sasha> An Imperial Miracle of Revolution, 4 TMP.

#### The Binding of the Twine

<HG> Anze struggles to get out of Maddie's grip. She does not get out of Maddie's grip. What she does accomplish is to get up with Maddie still attached to her and kicking.  
<HG> Diane closes her eyes. She opens them again a moment later, and this time there is the absolute iron of Aspect-maintained calm and determination behind them. "You're going to have to try a little harder than _that_ ," she says, getting up, slowly.  
<HG> Anze Torquil stabs at Sasha - clumsily - again and again and again.  
<HG> You may now agree on and invoke the help of an Ally.  
<Sasha> Diane's wife.  
<Sasha> If there's anyone who can demonstrate that she's not been abandoned, it's her.  
<Saul> Yup I agree with that  
<Maddie> :thumbsup:  
<HG> There is a wind, for just a moment. It skims the brush, setting stalks and leaves to swaying gently.  
<HG> "... Annie?" Diane asks.  
<HG> The wind blows stronger this time, and she reaches her fingers up into it, and she smiles.  
<HG> Anze Torquil is too focused on stabbing Sasha to realize what's happened. But she _did_ cast a miracle slightly earlier, to at least partially blind you with the warped lights of her Incandescence, and you should probably deal with that.  
<Sasha> _Draw on the strength of one of your Anchors and do a great work. Why isn't it enough? How does it hurt or break your Anchor?_  
<Sasha> Sasha does her level best to keep Anze occupied. Blade finds flesh again and again. Fire leaks from the open wounds. She smiles, despite herself.  
<Sasha> "A dear friend gave this to you. I'm taking it back."  
<Sasha> The gem set in Revolution's forehead begins to glow. The shard of Sonja's Heaven draws this _wrong_ , this _stolen_ , this _twisted_ light into itself. All of it. Sasha Konstanian, Robber, steals Incandescence back for Creation, with a Treasure 6 Miracle of Weaving Destiny: _The Shard gives us our sight back._  
<Sasha> It isn't enough. There is still fog and mud. Her vision blurs from the loss of her ichor. But maybe; maybe it's a start.  
<Sasha> It isn't correct. This is a wrong and a twisted Incandescence, and it lacks the beauty of what it once was. The gem strains. Heaven weeps at this intrusion.  
<Saul> _Take an action of your own that cannot possibly be enough to stop her. Why did you try? How does it hurt her?_  
<Saul> Saul has Sonja's knife and spool of twine. With just the right work, the twine might be able to bind Anze to this world. There's no running from this. Sonja _must_ be avenged and nothing can stop Saul. Not even death.  
<Saul> This is a Treasure 6 miracle (Treasure 2 + 4 TMP) of Weaving Destiny: _This twine is the rope that will bind Anze to Creation._  
<Saul> (incidentally I only have 3 TMP at the moment, so I'll be Last Trumping 3 DMP into 1 TMP before I weave fate)  
<Maddie> Maddie sees the shape of what is going on. Reality twisting them into shape, extracting tragedy from everyone in turn as its price for letting Anze into oblivion. She refuses.  
<Maddie> _At any time you can overcome an Auctoritas 3 or Obstacle 3 to act out-of-turn and/or actually succeed at hurting Anze mechanically._  
<Maddie> Maddie is a Power of the Wild. She won't be bound by these rules. (+2 Strike: You can't tell me what to do! I dance to the Song of the Wild!)  
<Maddie> She gathers her power. (+1 strike: 1 PMP)  
<Maddie> With the strength of a bear, she closes her teeth around Anze's wrist and bites off her sword hand. (Level 5 aspect miracle, 2 AMP).  
<HG> All right cool Anze doesn't have a sword hand anymore  
<HG> lemme think about what to do next

#### The Falling of the Truth

<HG> So.  
<HG> Anze Torquil cannot focus on anyone but Sasha. But she knew that something like this might happen - she knew what happened with her Doombot - and has planned for the machinery of her plans to come to fruition with or without her.  
<HG> (Though, mechanically speaking, this is equivalent to a Wound to partially get out of Sasha's Imperial Miracle.)  
<HG> It is at this point, then, that Acadia West wanders in, claps eyes on Anze Torquil, and suddenly crumples.  
<HG> "Ah," Anze says, "the faker has arrived."  
<HG> Diane rushes over to him. "Hey," she says, shaking him. "Hey!"  
<HG> His eyes open. There's nothing within them but falling stars.  
<HG> Anze pulls herself away from Sasha from a moment and slips the buckler onto her disabled arm. From her pocket she pulls another dagger.  
<HG> "Always wanted to use this one -" she says, eyes bright with glee. "I am not left-handed."  
<HG> She kicks Maddie off her, and Maddie goes bouncing off like a squeaky toy. Then she cuts the ability to interact with the ground out from underneath everyone.  
<HG> You are falling.  
<HG> Though I guess this time it isn't over the Siberian wilderness, so...  
<HG> Okay now you get to do one action each  
<Sasha> _Reach for the person spinning helplessly in the vortex of the Tragedy. What makes you think you can save them? What part of themselves do they lose forever?_  
<Sasha> "Acadia!" Sasha shouts. She is falling but frankly she doesn't care-- she can fly, after all. (Or at least she thinks she can; her Raven-wings are missing, though it doesn't matter because they're all in free-fall.) So she focuses: Acadia West.  
<Sasha> She can save him because she knows what it's like to have something wrong and awful stuffed into your soul. She knows what it's like to be premised on something that shouldn't be. She knows what it is like to hear the call of those far and sunless lands.  
<Sasha> He will never be a normal Noble again. He'll never even be a human again. He is a Rider, or something very much like one. But that doesn't make him an enemy of the world.  
<Sasha> "Take my hand!"  
<Saul> Saul's going to Wound against the falling - he's still falling, and that's pretty scary, but I think it's not an obstacle to him. He can balance and take action.  
<Saul> I'm guessing this is a normal wound?  
<HG> Yeah  
<Saul> _Take an action of your own that cannot possibly be enough to stop her. Why did you try? How does it hurt her?_  
<Saul> Saul wields his pen and strikes Anze with it, stabbing it into her neck. "I must kill Anze Torquil", reads Saul's bond 5. This won't be enough, but it will help. Progress must be made.  
<Saul> Aspect 0 + 4 AMP for Divine Force. He intends to kill her, and gains strike due to his Bond 5.  
<Maddie> _Defend others against what Anze Torquil is doing. What couldn't you shield them from in the past? What harm do you now take on their behalf?_  
<Maddie> Maddie had a plan, going into this. Take the last of her anchors. She's carefully saved just enough of her power to do exactly that. Now she has a new idea instead.  
<Maddie> She's got something in her mouth, raw and bloody: the hand of Anze Torquil, Excrucian Strategist. The hand of one who breaks the world.  
<Maddie> She's taken that hand and now it's hers.  
<Maddie> (4 TMP: claim a wondrous anchor and invoke its power.)  
<Maddie> Maddie doesn't have the kind of control over the power of unmaking that a strategist does. And this kind of power, the most fearsome weapon of the void, it hurts her to wield it. Maybe it's burning out a bit of herself too, even though she's doing the best she can to direct it at the enemy. But it's worth it.  
<Maddie> She points the hand at Anze, and its fingers curl to point accusingly at her. _Undo her plan_ , she implores it, and she hopes it listens.  
<Maddie> (Deadly wound: I'm hollow and fading.)  
<HG> ... well  
<HG> you  
<HG> have a  
<HG> world-breaker's  
<HG> hand??????  
<Maddie> Notably, Maddie isn't actually using a big enough treasure miracle to direct her anchor's power here  
<Maddie> Only to turn it on  
<Maddie> So um, hopefully it makes things better and not worse  
<Maddie> You can wield an anchor with aspect, but I don't think she has any applicable skills to do that with!  
<HG> well  
<Saul> what could possibly go wrong  
<HG> good luck Maddie  
<HG> let's see.  
<HG> um.  
<Maddie> Oh, actually -- I'm changing my wound affliction because I just realized this is going to be the thing that binds it to me as an anchor too  
<Maddie> So Affliction 4: [Anze Torquil's hand will be my downfall]  
<HG> ...  
<HG> _downfall_  
<HG> this just keeps getting better and better

#### The Breaking of the Branch

<HG> Diane Spinnaker has instinctively adopted the belly-down arms-out posture of a skydiver; Anze Torquil has done so much more deliberately.  
<HG> Saul Ravid, author, stabs his pen into Anze. It gets stuck there. Blood and ink mix and dribble out into the air around them, staining them all with dark splatters.  
<HG> Acadia, tears streaming from his eyes, reaches for Sasha. They make contact. He grips on for dear life. He's trying to say something, his mouth is open and his gorge is working, but nothing is coming out.  
<HG> You all hit a branch of the Ash at a glancing angle.  
<HG> There is a snap. (It's endgame, after all.)  
<HG> Worlds fall all around you like overripe fruit, and you're sent careening across them at blinding speed. For a moment, you're tumbling across a desert, and then it tilts crazily and sends you flying off onto the side of the mountain in another world, and then you're underwater in an ocean full of surprised dolphins for a moment, and then -  
<HG> Then there is nothing but air beneath you.  
<HG> Pick an Ally. Bring them in.  
<Maddie> Megan!  
<Saul> Megan would be lovely  
<Sasha> Megan.  
<HG> Megan, using Aspect to force her pigeon-form into divebombing like a hawk's, is there.  
<HG> And so: a great cloud of pigeons is underneath you, breaking your fall. Anze plummets right through them as if they weren't there, but the rest of you are brought to a rather safer stop.  
<HG> You are on a spreading root of the Ash, only a few miles above the rich loams of hell. You can already smell the manure and blood from here.  
<HG> A long, long way below you, on the next root over, there is a pigeon on Anze's face pecking her eyes out.  
<HG> She succeeds, and then Anze crushes her.  
<HG> So:  
<HG> What do you do?  
<Sasha> _Reach for the person spinning helplessly in the vortex of the Tragedy. What makes you think you can save them? What part of themselves do they lose forever?_  
<Sasha> Sasha wants to help Megan so badly. Megan Kieros, who was the first person to be touched by Revolution's grace. Megan Kieros, who was bullied out of Society before she could do anything, before she even lived, in the days when Aliki of the Dark ruled the forces of social isolation.  
<Sasha> She can't help Megan, right now. Maybe Saul can. Maybe Maddie can. But right here, she has someone she _can_ help. Someone who might fall into despair, the way Megan did, if she doesn't help.  
<Sasha> She leans in close to Acadia West. "I am here," she says. Her words are too important to silence. And then she listens for the echo, as they pass through Acadia's mind.  
<Sasha> Will 8 + Eavesdropping 1 = Intention 9: Listen to Acadia.  
<Maddie> _Take an action of your own that cannot possibly be enough to stop her. Why did you try? How does it hurt her?_  
<Maddie> Maddie descends upon Anze again, leaping from the relative safety of her own Ash-root. She takes the bloody wrist in both of her little hands and lashes out with it like a tiny little hammer, still dripping with void-power.  
<Maddie> This is not the way to defeat a strategist, especially not permanently. Maybe if Maddie could wield it with the same grace as a Rider, it would be enough. But not this way.  
<Maddie> It feels good, though, to erase her in bits and pieces at a time.  
<Saul> _Reach for the person spinning helplessly in the vortex of the Tragedy. What makes you think you can save them? What part of themselves do they lose forever?_  
<Saul> Saul uses his Gift that allows for a Lesser Creation of Books. He conjures a book of Creation, a book of life itself (1 DMP) and begins to read from it. As he does so, he enchants it (1 PMP) so that the book Makes Us Human. This is who and what Acadia is, whatever his estate might be. Acadia is still a Human Person, and he can choose which side he is on.  
<Sasha> _At any time you can overcome an Auctoritas 3 or Obstacle 3 to act out-of-turn and/or actually succeed at hurting Anze mechanically._  
<Sasha> Revolution shatters the bonds of the Ritual. She flies from Sasha's grip on wings of wire and glass and steel. She siphons from Sasha's _spiritus dei_ to fuel her own intervention.  
<Sasha> She is fighting Anze, now, wresting the broken bird from her grasp. A thin line on her hand drips with boiling mercury blood.  
<Sasha> " _I will not let you hurt her._ "  
<Sasha> (1 TMP + Treasure 5 = Treasure 6 Weaving Destiny: _Revolution will protect Megan Kieros_ \+ 3 TMP for Strike)  
<HG> Once upon a time, there was a man who could not be emotionless. Every day he was called upon to uphold the code of laws that were written to favor some and ignore others, and there was nothing he could do about it. Every night, the man's family and friends told him that he needed to try harder to follow the example of the woman whose position he had inherited. Any time he tried to ask for things to change, he found that they could not be changed, that organizations were unmovable in the world in the same way that laws were etched on the marble walls of the courtroom.  
<HG> He tried to make himself better for the role. He tried to learn how to be dispassionate. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not achieve it. Whatever he tried, it would work for a few hours, and then he'd find himself in his quarters the next day gasping and crying from the strain.  
<HG> There was a woman who wore a raven upon one shoulder, and she pulled a sword from her heart and she offered it to him. She promised him revolution. It inspired him to try to ask for change again. But nobody else would let him. Not even when he drew on the other powers he had. They just hurt him back, in other ways.  
<HG> Once upon a time, there was a man who realized that the principle that he'd been asked to uphold for the rest of time was a poison implanted within his heart.  
<HG> The man in front of you is dying of the objective truth being impossible to find.

#### The Death of the Strategist

<HG> Anze picks herself up off the ground, swaying. She can't see who she's supposed to be fighting. She doesn't know where you are. She doesn't know where she is.  
<HG> She does know how to do one thing.  
<HG> She picks up the dagger and plunges it into her own heart.  
<HG> In Revolution's hands, a broken pigeon's heart beats, fast and shallow and desperate, and then it stops.  
<HG> Pick an Ally.  
<Sasha> Nobody.  
<Sasha> It is too much to ask anyone else to die here.  
<Saul> I also vote for Nobody  
<Saul> Nobody else must die at Anze's hands  
<Saul> (in before a character named Nobody shows up)  
<Maddie> No one  
<HG> The air is still, and steamy, and damp, and Anze Torquil is struggling against your miracles, throwing attempt after attempt towards vanishing into the void.  
<HG> Your action turn begins now.  
<Saul> I presume the fate-weaving of the twine binding Anze to Creation is interfering here? Or is it something I need to specifically use?  
<HG> Have you been Sustaining it?  
<Saul> yeah  
<HG> Okay. _So far_ it holds, though she might be able to summon up the Strike to get out if nobody else does anything.  
<Sasha> _Defend others against what Anze Torquil is doing. What couldn't you shield them from in the past? What harm do you now take on their behalf?_  
<Sasha> Sasha did this, once before. It was for the right reasons then. It was only later, in the telling of the story, that it got all wrong and ugly.  
<Sasha> There was light spilled on a carpet, once upon a time. And now there is a cold, dead bird.  
<Sasha> Sasha reaches out to Megan Kieros and Anchors her. It scares her more than she can say to do this. The last time she did it, it was the worst thing she ever did in her entire life. But maybe she's better now. Maybe she's good enough to do this and have it not hurt.  
<Sasha> (1 TMP to claim a Miraculous Anchor)  
<Saul> _Take an action of your own that cannot possibly be enough to stop her. Why did you try? How does it hurt her?_  
<Saul> Dropping the Soul-Carving Pen intention, Saul spends 4 PMP for a Greater Emulation: Saul makes us human. And humans can be killed. Using his Bond 5 for Strike, for this to do actual, meaningful damage to Anze.  
<Saul> For Megan. For Aliki. For Sonja. For everyone that has been lost because of Anze.  
<Maddie> _Reach for the person spinning helplessly in the vortex of the Tragedy. What makes you think you can save them? What part of themselves do they lose forever?_  
<Maddie> As she sees Anze dying, Maddie remembers what she's here for. Erasing and hurting and killing her is not enough.  
<Maddie> She calls on her estate and fog pours out of her body. It recoils from her so she makes more, more, more, and the fog is thick around her and Anze both and it swirls and rushes and hides the pain and horror of the world in a blanket of endless possibilities.  
<Maddie> (1 DMP for a Creation and Animation of fog)  
<Maddie> "Don't think you can walk away from me, Anze Torquil," Maddie says. "You have nowhere to go."  
<Maddie> Whether it's possible, Maddie isn't sure, but she commands the fog to hide Anze Torquil's way back into the void. If she has her way, Anze will never find it again.

#### Late

_The Ritual has ended. But there's still a thing or two to address._

<HG> There is a sled and vultures above you, and Claudia jumps from it lightly onto your branch. A moment later, Punctuation skids to a stop nearby.  
<HG> "I see we are a bit late," says Claudia. "Nice work. Usually takes more than this to... stop a..."  
<HG> Her eyes fall on the bird.  
<HG> "I'm sorry."  
<HG> Diane is holding a whimpering Acadia. "All right," she says, businesslike. "Acadia needs to be taken to see Lana in case she can help him, the kids here need to be brought back to Earth before the tides of Hell-miasma crest, and a Strategist corpse needs to be disposed of. Also, I probably _actually_ need medical attention for once in my life."  
<HG> This is when you notice that her legs are both broken.  
<Sasha> Sasha Konstanian coughs fire onto the roots of the World Ash. She is burning. She is consumed by her own divinity. A moment of destiny quick approaches.  
<Sasha> She looks at the bird in her hands. She weeps. She is a Power of this world, maybe even something more than that, and here she is as helpless as a child. All she can do is hope. Hope that even with the lights of Colbrand guttered by the Not, even in this world where Attaris is the Age, even in this world where Alienation is as sacred and inviolable as Fog or Illumination or Metaphors, where Truth had been a lie for who-knows-how-long:  
<Sasha> Even this world, wretched and sad as it might be, might be worth something.  
<Sasha> A pigeon coos in her hands and she makes an ugly, wrenching noise of relief.  
<HG> Punctuation is herding everyone onto the sled. There's enough room on it, if everyone is careful to stay in place. And they lift off.  
<Saul> Saul stands silently over Anze's corpse. There's probably dried blood on him, but he's indifferent. Sonja was finally avenged. But what is there left for him to do now? He hasn't thought that far ahead. Part of his heart aches with a certain emptiness. What now? How can he go back to a normal life?  
<HG> "Hey," Claudia says, suddenly, looking at Sasha. "How difficult is it for you to speak Imperial Miracles?"  
<Sasha> "Once easily. Thrice if I exhaust myself. Four, five times if I am willing to break myself in the process."  
<Sasha> "Or more, if I am in a place of power."  
<Sasha> Sasha's lips don't actually move to convey this information. Her words just issue forth, miraculously, while she breaks down.  
<HG> "The way to completely destroy and neutralize an Excrucian is to immure them within the laws of the world, so that they have nothing of the void left to grasp. And usually we ask an Imperator to dispose of them, but it'll be a lot easier to get an Imperator that has a moment to tell you what to do than find an Imperator who's got the spare energy right now."  
<HG> "What say you?"  
<Sasha> "...I think," Sasha says, this time with her actual human mouth. "I think this what this whole sad story was leading up to."  
<Sasha> "The body of a Ymera."  
<Sasha> "The power to speak Imperial Miracles into the world."  
<Sasha> "The power to take the Nobilis as underlings."  
<Sasha> "Immortality, as the Sun, the wind, as hope is immortal."  
<Sasha> She sits down at the feet of the corpse. "A story to tell to the world."  
<HG> "Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?" Diane asks. "Weaving her death into the power to tell your story is an exceptionally good way to make sure that she cannot ever be reconstituted. But it will also fix you permanently to the world. You will trap yourself within the story, you will weave yourself into the foundations, and you will never have another choice again. There is no going back to a human's mind. There will no longer be spare moments to merely enjoy life. There will only be the struggle to overpower the voices of the Excrucians with your own."  
<Sasha> She exhales white fire.  
<Sasha> "When you put it that way, it sounds rather awful."  
<Sasha> She smiles. "But I don't want to put it that way."  
<Sasha> "The way I'd put it is; what would Aliki do? What would little Sasha Konstanian of New York, New York want?"  
<Sasha> "What would Sonja Aronsdottir have done if she had the same chance?"

#### The Last Miracle

<Sasha> She stands up. She calls her sword. She takes a deep, deep breath.  
<Sasha> "Anyone have anything to say to me before I do something stupid?"  
<HG> You are in the blue sky and the sun of Earth again. You are next to a lake.  
<HG> The others are there.  
<Saul> Saul looks her in the face. "I seem to recall us having a similar conversation once, before I was ennobled. I can hardly tell you to turn back."  
<HG> Punctuation dismounts. Toby Houston approaches; recoils; points at Acadia. Punctuation says something to him. He shakes his head, then steps back. Someone else carries Acadia away.  
<HG> Diane lets herself be strapped into some sort of stretcher, but raises her hand when they try to pick her up. She turns her face towards Sasha, expectantly.  
<HG> Someone else has a thermos of some sort of hot drink, spiced in a way that is almost familiar but not quite, and pours out mugs of it for the three of you.  
<HG> Maddie's mother intercepts the mug and puts a scoop of ice cream on top of it before handing it to her.  
<Maddie> Maddie smiles  
<Sasha> (Completing a Destiny circle: _This place will become a new Heaven._ )  
<Sasha> Sasha Konstanian burries her sword in Anze Torquil's chest. At the base of the sword, there is a shard of Heaven.  
<Sasha> Sword and Heaven bloom together, a tangle of metal and light and flower. The whole thing unfolds like a lotus. Petals encase the lake, the shore, the grass, the forest. This place is exalted above what it once was. It isn't Heaven, not quite yet, but it is a quiet, healing place, and it brims with potential. Perhaps when Ananda is the Age, perhaps sooner, this will be a place worthy of Sonja Aronsdottir. It is a Chancel, without an Imperator to claim it.  
<Sasha> Sasha feels a tugging at her heart. She smiles. There is one last thing tying her to humanity. She takes her phone out, taps out a message. And instead of hitting [send], she fills it with the force of the Imperial.  
<Sasha> (Treasure 5 + 4TMP = Imperial Miracle of Cell Phone: _Rhonda Caseworth will hear my last message, someday._ )  
<Sasha> The phone vanishes. It is a thing of narrative and will, now, almost unfettered from her. And then there is nothing left to do but--  
<Sasha> Sasha can't _not_ give a speech before this, actually.  
<Sasha> "When I got made a Noble, I thought it was a cruel joke when I found out I was Immortal," she says. "I get picked by the Song of human suicide and I can't even kill myself. What a miserable f--king thing to do, Aliki."  
<Sasha> She smiles jackal-like, for maybe the last time as a human. "And then, when I started trying to burn down everything, I thought 'a perfect loophole'! I thought I could kill myself and get off scot free by just throwing myself at Society, over and over, until I broke. I fantasized that I'd just jump into Misenchronic Engine, gum up the gears with my bones and skin and guts."  
<Sasha> "Cneph, I was an asshole," she says. White-fire tears dust her lashes. She sips that drink, slowly, savoring it. "I can't believe any of you put up with me. I can't believe half of you liked me, even. But, uh--"  
<Sasha> "Well, the measure of goodness isn't in dying for the right cause, right? It's in living for it. And that's exactly what I'm going to do."  
<Sasha> (Treasure 5 + 4TMP = Imperial Miracle of Revolution: _I will usurp the Imperial and challenge the_ mos maiorum _of Creation._ )  
<Saul> Saul stands up straight and salutes her. "Godspeed, soldier."  
<HG> And there is light.

#### On The Next Episode...

An epilogue.


	29. Epilogue(s)

_There is a sort of eternity, in the halls and the keeps of the Nobilis. It is not stasis, for their relationships and institutions are never completely stable. It is not quite that the present moment stretches eternally, or that it moves in an endless loop. But time is flexible, there. A thousand years ago, and a thousand years in the future, might be the same thing as now._

\-- _Lorica_ , by Matt Lincoln

* * *

Today, we see what happened to everyone. Dozens of plot threads were dropped during the course of this campaign, but, well... even the ones that we never followed up on have their own natural conclusions, and I wanted to know what they were.

I have rearranged the discussions we had so that they are in better storytelling order. Therefore, there might be a stray reference or two to something that comes later in this document, and for that I apologize.

#### The Wildlady Konstanian

The Wildlady Konstanian lets Megan Kieros go, at her request. Claudia of Constantinople dies a noble death taking down some Deceiver or other. Rhonda Caseworth eventually ends up in the Falling Stars. Acadia --

 _< Sasha> Konstanian cups him delicately in her immense grasp. "Acadia," she says. "...Are you familiar with the Rite of Rescue?"_  
_< HG> He turns his face away. "The Power of Truth is dead. The Estate of Truth is gone."_  
_< Sasha> "It mustn't always be so."_  
_< HG> "I am not an Excrucian, nor will I ever be." A single jeweled tear hangs in the corner of his dark, star-filled eyes; rolls down his face that without changing at all has somehow become beautiful beyond compare. "But I am the Strategist who is dying of the subjectivity of the truth. And to incorporate the rot in my heart into one such as you would be unspeakably wrong."_

A few months after the events of the game, Acadia comes to the Wildlady Konstanian and tells her that Truth no longer exists. His last request is for the Wildlady Konstanian to save his sister-caelestis, the Power of Logic. And then he leaves, never to be seen again.

 _< Sasha> It might be so that he is somewhere in that far and sunless land, there waiting._  
_< Sasha> But Konstanian has given up the part of her that could walk there._

In his memory, the Wildlady Konstanian offers the Rite of Rescue to the Power of Logic, Lucy Adamantine; stealing her away from the Mimic Angel Laodan as it implodes.

The Wildlady Konstanian takes the Botanist Eliot of Vervain, someone from the files I've never mentioned because he somehow never came up, as her Noble of Alienation. She has Lucy Adamantine's Logic, and tries her damnedest to rehabilitate that Estate into something that might belong in Creation again. And she has a third Estate, too... which I won't name, because it'll come up later in this writeup.

Meanwhile, the Darklord Kethredamen is furious that Alienation was taken from him. Deep in the world, he confronts her. She confronts him right back. He backs down, and does not work with her again.

 _< Sasha> "If you did not want this, Keith."_  
_< Sasha> "_You should have killed me when you had the chance. _"_  
_< HG> He stares at you, and does whatever is the Spirit World's equivalent of backing away slowly._

Every few years, the Wildlady Konstanian requests a seat on the Council of Four. She is stonewalled every time. But there are plenty of other things to occupy her life, between sending the same request again and again every few years. Does this state of affairs last forever? I don't know.

 _< Sasha> As far as Imperators go, Konstanian is impatient._  
_< Sasha> But still; a hundred years isn't too long to wait. Diane Spinnaker waited that long for someone to knock her from her perch, and she wasn't even a rolling story in the seas below the world._  
_< Sasha> Plus; she has a Chancel to create, friends to maintain, an overworked underling to mollify. A letter written in the sky she still thinks about._

Toby Houston comes, to ensure that the sealing of Anze Torquil is complete. He finally announces to her that it is. But he behaves like, and believes that, whoever Sasha Konstanian might be is _gone_ , swallowed by the Imperial fire. The Wildlady Konstanian is deeply offended by this.

 _< Sasha> Listen: Konstanian believes herself to be a thief of the Imperial essence, human striving overcoming the limits of the world._  
_< Sasha> And she is an Imperator, so she is what she believes herself to be._

#### The Society of Steel

Now at rest, the Revolution cannot be called a Revolution anymore. Wildlady Konstanian christens it the Society of Steel.

Unfortunately, just inventing a new Society has not exactly solved the issue of factionalism in Noble society. If anything, it accentuated it, by cracking it in half. Even the bridging efforts of people on both sides - and the eventual sharing of the Falling Stars and the Green Snakes, as organizations that are kept by and can be joined from either side - will never heal the divide. But Diane, Cheshire, Punctuation, Rumor... they all try.

There are a few hardliners, of course, who refuse to accept the Society of Steel's legitimacy. Soil's-Regal. Bran of the peacock-feathers, who was once Diane's. But fewer and fewer agree with them, over the years.

 _< Sasha> Soil of course is barred from Locus Konstanian, the Lotus Estate_  
_< Sasha> Konstanian is capable of being incredibly petty, should she so choose_  
_< Sasha> And delights in bringing up, whenever she happens to speak to a Power, that she cheated Soil's Regal out of four untoward accusations against her honor_

What happens to Revolution herself, I ask? Sasha's player tells me. Her purpose -- the bleeding, and the screaming, and the striving -- gone, she works as the Erus (the local ruler) of Locus Konstanian and the administrator for the Society of Steel. The hollow in her heart left by all that fighting gone will eventually heal, with time and work and learning to become friends with her signatories, but... it will take a long time. And there is one wound she keeps, in the memory of Sonja Aronsdottir, who inspired Sasha to envision a better world. The cut on her palm, the representation of the line that Sonja once sliced in _her_ palm, still drips catalytic mercury.

Diane's other Anchors, and their eventual fate? Well, Vien of the raven-cape is dead. Bran of the peacock-feathers tries and fails to strip the Society of Steel of legitimacy. And her wife Annie, who is the white sand beach, will eventually die fulfilling the duties of a Power, but that will be many years from now.

The Digital Cleave never does become better people.

It takes many, many years for Megan to become comfortable with the idea of being part of a Society again, but in the end she probably does join. As an alternative to the Ravens that many Nobles use to visualize and converse with the spirit of the Society of Flowers, the Society of Steel begins to prefer pigeons. Megan gives her blessing.

_< Sasha> Pigeons are tough little bastards. They will survive anything, live anywhere. Worm their way to the cracks of society and nest there. They were something beautiful and glorious, before, but to the right mindset they are more beautiful and glorious still._

#### Maddie's 14th Birthday

 _< Maddie> A few months after defeating Anze, Maddie turns 14. And on that day she has the most lavish spelling bee there ever was._  
_< Maddie> On that day, the final word of the spelling bee is one that no one has ever heard before, Rider or not. When she speaks it, everyone in attendance who has ears catches fire._  
_< Maddie> The next day, she turns 14 again, of course. And the day after that._

Maddie moves her "yearly" spelling bees to Locus Konstanian; and, soon afterwards, she finds at least a word of that Forbidden Alphabet she wanted so much. And turns 14. Then she continues to turn 14 for many, many years to come.

She crashes fashion shows wearing ARthur, the sunglasses; nobody can stop her and nobody tries. She keeps Hattie (who never does admit to having agency) on top of the Doombot, who remains completely, unsettlingly immobile and dead. She Anchors the elephant, who occasionally flies her places. She burns Anze's hand, and keeps the candle that she used to burn it.

 _< Maddie> The candle doesn't have a wondrous power, but it's alive even in the prosaic_  
_< Maddie> Her bond is that she owes it seven favors for defiling it with a strategist's flesh_  
_< Maddie> In the first ten years, it's only called in one_

After spelling bees, Maddie and the Wildlady Konstanian play games with each other. Maddie wins most of them, including tic-tac-toe, Connect Four, and Uno. After Rescuing Logic, Konstanian becomes terrifyingly good at Monopoly. Though apparently she does give Maddie a bonus payout for her "birthday" after some pleading, and then Maddie decides to drag a game on for five days, collect all that birthday money, and win that way.

Because she is definitionally fourteen, most of Maddie's memory is lost in the mists of deep time, and usually - when she isn't being an Ancient - she's only ever aware of the last handful of years of it. The memories of the year of Anze Torquil and Revolution and Sonja, though... they begin to fuzz at the edges, but they never go away.

 _< Maddie> She will always remember Sonja, though, as the sister she had that died when she was like 5_  
_< Maddie> (Similarly, over time Konstanian becomes "that sister I had who ascended to the imperial plane when I was 5")_

Maddie does, eventually, acquire the Estate of Ice Cream. She gives it to her mother Grace, who theoretically remains Anchored and subordinate to her daughter but in practice becomes a more equal partner in their relationship.

The Darklord Kethredamen is never really the same again, after he loses Alienation. He's still an Imperator, still the story the world tells itself of how fog and ice cream and metaphors exist. But his demeanor grows smaller, more brittle, more willing to let his Nobles run everything.

(One of Maddie's few true fears is losing everything if Kethredamen should ever disappear. The Wildlady Konstanian offers to perform the Rite of Rescue on Maddie if that ever happens. Maddie is very, very grateful.)

As to Maddie's relationship with the two Societies? Her position suspended between the two, never having formally renounced the Society of Flowers but personal friends with the one who made the sword itself, leads to her spelling bees being one of the best ways to meet people from the other Society. Sometimes this leads to new friendships forged; sometimes it leads to the Noble equivalent of bar brawls. And the allegiances of Maddie herself -- everyone knows why she does not go on pilgrimages to Misenchronic Engine, and why she spends so much time in Locus Konstanian.

Occasionally she is attacked, by Excrucians or others, and she wins almost all of these fights.

 _< HG> Honestly, you fight a lot of things off. Mostly successfully. The entire society split thing, and your position in it, ensures that you're always an easy target for disgruntled members of the one or the other._  
_< Maddie> Maddie doesn't even mind that, really. She likes fighting._  
_< Maddie> Especially because it's usually followed by winning._

Maddie attends the funeral of Ariane Lambert, that one Saint of Scheduling who tried to bribe her with "the Firebreathers". She remains on good terms with the rest of that Familia.

Every few weeks Maddie irritates Mount St. Helens, who suffers the fourteen-year-old trying to challenge her to thumb-wrestling or invite her to spelling bees with relative dignity.

 _< Maddie> Maddie invites Helens to every spelling bee and occasionally comes by to be annoying. She doesn't really mind that Helens mostly brushes her off. That's what makes it fun!_  
_< HG> She responds to every invitation to the spelling bee by cutting the first page remaining out of a dictionary she keeps for the purpose and mailing it back. She is already to the letter D._  
_< Maddie> Maddie has every one framed, in a giant room dedicated to the purpose in Locus Kethredamen_  
_< HG> She has also threatened that should you continue to push her past the end of the dictionary she will start on the Encyclopedia Britannica._  
_< Maddie> Maddie has all the time in the world._

And the little lightbulb, the first thing that Maddie ever took from Anze, lives a long and happy life in one of the chandeliers of Locus Kethredamen.

#### The Departure of Saul

Saul, the purpose of his ascension now finished, Sonja's death now avenged, finds himself empty, drifting, purposeless. Maddie can't help because she's Maddie. Kethredamen can't help because he's been broken by the loss of Alienation. So Saul Ravid, the author and the Power of Metaphors, goes to the Wildlady Konstanian.

 _< Sasha> Ironically enough, Konstanian wants to check in on _him _._  
_< Sasha> She's fine. She is becoming herself. She is mad at Toby Houston and Surolam and is trying to understand the rules to Monopoly but overall she's _fantastic _._  
_< Saul> "You could always play something that isn't Monopoly. Monopoly is a bad game."_  
_< Sasha> "Did you know," she says by way of conversation, "Free Parking doesn't actually do anything? It's just a blank space."_  
_< Saul> "Not according to the house rules."_  
_< Sasha> Konstanian gestures at the steel-flower landscape. "I think this is my house."_

Wildlady Konstanian suggests that he write another book. It is impossible to fill the hole Sonja left in his heart, but maybe he can grow something new. Saul hesitates, so Konstanian continues: She has a new Estate, birthed from her nature, and she has been saving it for someone worthy. And if Saul created the wondrous Sonja Aronsdottir once... he could, perhaps, create someone new to carry that legacy. Tell another story, of someone who could aspire and make the world better in the way Sonja's vision of Heaven could.

 _< Sasha> "_You created that _, Saul."_  
_< Saul> "It was..." Saul's voice chokes. "A fluke. An accident. I'm not anywhere close to that ideal myself. I don't know how I could do that again."_  
_< Sasha> "I think Sonja would say you should try."_  
_< Sasha> "Don't tell the same story. Don't write the same book. But... write something about the way you wish things were. About how things should be. About how you wish we were."_  
_< Sasha> "And I will make that dream something closer to reality."_

Many years later, Saul returns, bearing a new book. Someone who grew up in the shadow of Sonja Aronsdottir, who was expected to follow in the footsteps of her older sister, but who eventually carved a path of her own. Her name is Birgitta Aronsdottir. Konstanian takes the stuff of the Lotus Estate and makes a golem of it, takes the story and breathes into it a soul, and gives it the divine spark of...

 _< HG> and there is a girl with cowslip in her auburn hair, eyes that glint of steel, the simple dress of a traveler, and the 7-11 logo tattooed onto her left foot._  
_< HG> Which is actually very easy to see immediately because she is barefoot._  
_< Saul> "7-11. Really?" Saul looks up at Konstanian._  
_< Sasha> "Would you have written the same story if you knew that was the Estate?"_  
_< Saul> "No."_  
_< Sasha> "It is as it should be."_

Yes. The convenience store 7-11, the place from whence Sasha Konstanian was plucked from the mortal world so long ago, is an Estate of reality now. (And one of their marketing slogans used to be "Oh thank Heaven", so it even fits.) And when she opens her eyes, Konstanian tells her what her duty is.

 _< Sasha> "Protect the world from those who would destroy it."_  
_< Sasha> "Shape 7-11 into something beautiful."_  
_< Sasha> "Do what you would like in the world."_  
_< Sasha> "...Be my friend, perhaps, if you wish."_

And so Birgitta Aronsdottir learns how to exist. She is truly Immortal, held at the YA protagonist age of 17 (though it isn't her birthday). She learns to wear shoes because otherwise people ask weird questions about the logo on her foot. She fosters her Estate in the world, by advising the 7-11 higher-ups on where to open stores, and strolling into stores and fixing the Slurpee machines without asking. She keeps birds and studies the divine Botany. She goes sledding with Maddie on Mount St. Helens after fresh snowfalls.

Eventually she finds herself ready to have one last conversation with Saul Ravid, her author.

 _< HG> They're in the Lotus Estate again._  
_< HG> She's set up a cheap plastic tablecloth as a picnic blanket, and has unpacked some sandwiches and bottled tea._

They talk about who Sonja was. What beauty is. What Saul's lost along the way. He says that he cannot find the answer to the emptiness within him that Sonja left, and it is driving him to wander the Ash. She tells him that she won't stop him from going away, but she will be sad if he has to leave.

At the end, Saul offers her the journals of the Powers of Metaphors. She refuses to take them, though she does speed-read and commit them to photographic memory (because Aspect can do that). She tells him to put them back in the libraries of Locus Kethredamen, in case someone else needs them.

 _< Saul> "...Birgitta. Thank you. Just, for being you." He smiles._  
_< HG> "I mean, I can't be anyone else but me, can I?" she teases him, gently._

Saul promises that he will come back one day. Revolution gifts him the Ravens' knowledge of the secret paths among the great branches of the world tree. Birgitta hands him a 7-11 rewards card that will never run out of points, for if he ever needs food along the way. The Lady Konstanian says she'll make sure that Maddie doesn't burn down the Chancel while he's gone.

He leaves. I don't know if he ever comes back.

 _< HG> And maybe then she looks at him retreating, and then looks at the Lady Konstanian, and she says -_  
_< HG> "I couldn't keep him."_  
_< HG> "I'm sorry."_  
_< Sasha> Konstanian is unconcerned. "It happened as it was going to happen."_  
_< Sasha> "We will see him again."_  
_< HG> Birgitta looks at the little flowers that float ever gently through the air of Locus Konstanian. Right now they're cherry blossoms. Impermanence. "I hope he finds what he's looking for."_

#### On The Next Episode...

All we've got left is my own retrospective. Though I suppose I might make a masterpost, once all this is over.


	30. My Retrospective

Today, I'm going to talk about the experience of running the game, and why I made some of the decisions I did.

#### On "Early Installment Weirdness" And Realistic Expectations

Now, the thing about BTL as presented here is that - even though it is an Actual Play, even though it is my best attempt to summarize - it includes quite a bit of after-the-fact editing. The quotes scattered throughout only include what I consider to be the most brilliant of quotes from the session - they're the best 5-10% of the words everyone wrote. I editorialized, sometimes quite heavily, backfilling my own explanations of things that nobody really realized or aimed for at the time.

I, personally, think that Between the Lights hit its proper stride in session 6, at the deathday party. But I don't recommend skipping. The events from before then were important, because they introduced many of the characters and places that were focal to the campaign.

It is completely normal for characterization to skip around inconsistently, especially in the first few sessions and double-especially in a game that runs in real-time. Maddie was already more or less established because her player had been running a Maddie variant for months in another campaign beforehand; the other characters were created for the campaign, and so the voices took a while to settle down. Often, I did not even bother making the voice of an NPC particularly consistent unless and until the players decided to pay attention to them.

It is the nature of a roleplaying game to leave hanging plot threads all over the place. Not even an expansive epilogue like the one I did could totally resolve them all. It would take far more editing than I have done to tighten it up to "literary" standards. That is how a roleplaying game goes. It is - to borrow one of the aphorisms that Sonja of Metaphors loved to use - a journey, not a destination.

#### On Why I Didn't Just Recruit Another Ice Cream

After Ice Cream's player left, I was tossing around the idea of adding someone else. Then Maddie made a move for the Estate of Ice Cream, and I decided to stand aside and let her try. Why? If I wanted, I could have just thrown another player in. It would have mildly disappointed Maddie, if I'd done it immediately after the previous player left, but there would have been no significant consequences.

But, after a bit of disorientation, I realized that the game felt correct and complete with just three. I found there didn't _need_ to be another PC in the character dynamics. So I just left the seat empty.

I think next time I run Nobilis, I will cap it at three.

#### On My Approach To HGing

I come from a background of freeform GMless systemless roleplay. From this I acquired this habit of seizing control of the environment and narrating it into being around me before the GM could tell me not to. For the longest time, I was told that this was an extremely bad habit, and I thought that meant I couldn't play tabletop roleplaying games. Then I read in Chuubo's that the responsibilty of the HG is to play the world, and something clicked.

And so, instead of approaching this as "GMing a game", I freeform-roleplayed anywhere between 5 and 12 characters simultaneously (depending on the immediate needs of the plot) and let the rest of the world fall naturally out of that. I would have characters bouncing off each other both onscreen and offscreen. That's the secret to how I produced the look of a living world outside the PCs' immediate sphere of influence: it's because there _was_ one. I mean, I was only really meaningfully moving around Familia Liana and Diane and Rumor and Rhonda and Soil and a few others in the background, but that was enough.

(If you don't understand why this is a big deal, some GMs have this thing like in video games where, if the PCs aren't currently actively working on a situation, it just unloads and doesn't change until the PCs come back to it.)

To the untrained eye, this looks like me playing a GMPC. The distinction between my "playing a dozen characters" and a classical GMPC is that I was perfectly willing to add or drop anyone on the docket depending on who the players wanted to focus on. If for whatever reason they decided to remove Diane from play entirely, that would have been fine, and I would have brought in other people to deal with the consequences.

Many other people - possibly even most other people - might not be able to do it this way. That's fine. But "literally just playing twelve characters simultaneously" is a GMing style I have not seen documented _anywhere_ , so I wanted to write it down.

#### On Anze Torquil

I'd originally planned for this game to be about the Society of Flowers, with any Excrucians playing bit parts at best. But then I scrapped something like half my plot and threw Anze Torquil onto the stage. Why?

You might have noticed that Sasha has this tendency to monologue... and monologue... and monologue... This is something I like as a characterization point - it gives me plenty of material to chew on - but it often shut out the other players. Meanwhile, I saw Maddie and Sonja receding further and further into the background as the plot progressed. Maddie was getting left out because the social intrigue was all going over her head, and Sonja was getting left out because Sonja wasn't actively going around antagonizing almost all the characters I ever introduced.

So I introduced plot hooks that were more accessible to them than to Sasha. I had Megan only trust Sonja. I had the social shenanigans remain centered on the Powers of Heaven, rather than shifting towards (say) the Council of the Light, a group I'd originally planned for a central role. Then I gave Maddie a straightforward antagonist that she could understand and beat up.

At the time I introduced her, I had absolutely no idea what Anze Torquil's powerset was, where she'd come from, or what she was Dying of. I was just borrowing from an offhanded comment Rhonda made very early on, about having betrayed Incandescence to the Excrucians. But as I thought about this during the downtimes between the next few sessions, I figured out that there had to be a reason Rhonda wasn't getting any help, and the character concept began to emerge.

At first the "isolation and betrayal" angle was the only thing I'd nailed down. I had no clue that my making her Anchors references to other media could have been a characterization point until my players pointed it out. I did not even have a firm grasp on Anze's Bane until session 22, and that's... 9 sessions after I introduced her, now that I look back at all my summaries.

I wrote Anze Torquil backwards - usually you _start_ with the thing that kills a Strategist before you work out anything else about them - but it seems to have worked out.

#### On Thematics and Preachiness

So, when I was conceiving of this game, I wrote down a handful of postulates for how I was going to run it. This was on some random piece of paper that has probably long since been recycled by now, so I don't have the exact wording, but they go something like this:

  * Power cannot be taken by clean hands.
  * The more a Noble pursues their Nobility, the less human they become.
  * Many Nobles have alien value systems and skewed assumptions about the world, but their morals and worldview make a lot more sense if you use their axioms instead of yours.
  * The results of the Robbers' Cave experiment, aside from having an apt name, apply to Nobles as well.



This was more than just an exercise in creating Campaign Conventions or mission statements. Whenever I was uncertain about which direction I should take the plot, or whenever I wasn't sure how an NPC would react, I used these as tiebreakers.

Does this kind of approach result in "preachiness"? Maybe, sometimes. But every single time I put one of these things in, I make sure to ground it in the context of a character, with a social environment and a history and a motivation more complex than these statements alone.

Even the Digital Cleave, who might look like caricatures at first glance - they had backstories. These backstories were like two sentences long and never came up, but the practice of _coming up with_ these backstories made me see and play them as people. Were they exaggeratedly hostile props that served a plot purpose? Certainly. But they were also people, and they would respond in more nuanced ways if influenced by the right sort of experiences. If the PCs had bothered to look further they would have unfolded like fractals. I would have liked for that to happen, I think. But the PCs moved on, so I did too.

Later, I put Punctuation in front of Sasha, and Sasha talked to her and found a person beyond the Raven-and-Robber mask. I gave Toby Houston to Sonja, and Sonja found that the more she looked the more alien he became. Sasha took Diane Spinnaker and forced her heart open with a Destiny bubble, but even if she hadn't, Diane would still have those motivations... they would just have been far harder to find.

#### On "Being Mean" To The Characters

I love the characters my players made, and that is why I killed one of them.

Taken on its face, this statement is completely absurd. But it's three or four tiers down one of those galaxy brain memes, and it's very much informed by how and where my storytelling instincts were trained.

When I killed Sonja, I spent the next few days wandering around in a haze of feeling like I'd done something I should not have been allowed to do. (Because the freeform roleplays that I grew up in considered "godmodding" an unconscionable act.) But then I looked over the logs, and realized that Sonja had, over and over again, refused to escape, chose not to defend herself. She'd spent the last few moments of her life desperately pleading for an Excrucian to stop being an Excrucian, hoping against hope that Anze's heart was not so hardened as it was. And that taught me _so much_ about her.

(I think this would have worked in Chuubo's. It is the sort of thing that counts as Making Answer to the Bleak. But Nobilis is far more black-and-white.)

There is advice floating around that GMs should be the characters' biggest fan, rather than an enemy. I think this is helpful because few games are improved by making the GM more adversarial. However, there is another, more subtle thing that I implicitly believed was a corollary to this statement, until someone pointed out that it wasn't:

That the best way to show off a character's truest and most brilliant colors is to push them to the point of breaking, showing the strength of whatever it is that they _can't_ compromise on.

But something about this attitude wasn't working right in BTL. Every time I tried to push Sasha, she responded by escalating further. She used her Immortality to work herself far past the point when anyone else would have collapsed from exhaustion. She interpreted the Society of Flowers rejecting her as evidence that she was doing something right. She stared Lord Entropy down and spit divine fire in his metaphorical face. This is a type of character I have theorized - [Katan Givengi](https://eternity-braid.tumblr.com/post/131107043994/katan-givengi-power-of-piercings), in specific - but this is the first time I have seen it face to face.

Maybe that's because most of my experience has been from Replay Value. 

#### On Impossible Problems

Here is something I have found about running Nobilis: don't even bother coming up with problems that have solutions. Come up with impossible problems, see how the players try to semantics their way out, and accept whatever answer they eventually give you. Nobilis gives players and characters so much that impossible problems can be solved... as long as you say yes.

Then I extended the idea of an "impossible problem" to the entire campaign premise. The seed crystal of Between The Lights was the idea of Noble society being unfixable in a way that was terrifyingly human. How would the PCs try to change a society whose rot is far deeper than can be excised by individual actions? Would they try to change it from the inside and make themselves complicit, or would they try to topple it from the outside and destroy the good parts of the system as well as the bad?

Of course, later events put a kibosh on that particular angle. Ultimately, my Nobilis game is for my _players_ , as much as it is for myself, and so I had to set aside what I thought things were going to be about. But that's where it started.

Incidentally, if you've gone this far, here's something fun that was pointed out to me: Between the Lights literally started with light and ended with light.


End file.
